Had to pick between a steady IT job and a startup offer last year.

The choice was my current help desk role at $55k or a project manager spot at a new app company for $65k. I went with the startup for the extra cash and title. It folded after eight months, and I was out of work for three weeks. Anyone else take a risk on a new company that didn't pan out?

3 comments

3 Comments

stellabennett1mo ago

Read an article that said most startups fail in the first two years. The extra money and title are tempting but that risk is real. Your story is basically the textbook example. I get why you went for it though. A lot of us would have made the same call. That three week gap must have been stressful.

rivera.keith1mo ago

Man, that article's right but it misses the big picture. Everyone talks about the money or the title. Nobody asks if the product actually solves a real problem for real people. A lot of those failed startups just make stuff nobody needs. The stress isn't from the gap, it's from trying to sell something that doesn't matter.

christopher671mo ago

Yeah, that risk is no joke. It reminds me of a buddy who joined a hot new app company. @stellabennett, he got the fancy title and a pay bump too. They burned through cash for eighteen months building a "social network for gardeners" that just let you post pictures of your tomatoes. Turns out people already do that everywhere else. The product just didn't fix a real problem. He said the stress at the end was awful, watching the runway disappear.