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Time and capital are your two greatest constraints

At the inception of building a company, I’d argue that time is the more critical of the two.

Constraints are the most powerful tool for keeping you disciplined, accountable, and maintaining forward momentum. If you feel like you’ve just struck gold with a startup idea, your first instinct might be to quit your full-time job and pursue it with all your might. I’d urge you, however, to hold onto that job (for now), because it’s the greatest way to constrain your time.

You’re forced to only focus on critical tasks

I juggled a full-time job during my first 6 months of building Brainfood. I only had 10 to 20 spare hours a week, after work and on weekends, to grind on something I cared so deeply about. I’d argue these were the most hyperfocused, productive days.

Every precious hour was spent talking to users, testing prototypes, and learning rapidly. Landing pages were built, prototypes iterated on, and distribution channels experimented with.

In December of 2019, a sudden burst of new users discovered us through a newsletter and Product Hunt launch. In a weekend we hit over 2000 new sign-ups and just north of 200 pre-orders. It was at this premature moment, I decided to quit my job and pursue Brainfood with all my might.

Boundless time creates room for distractions

The freedom that came after quitting my job was surreal. My time was immediately unbounded and it felt wild to just focus on Brainfood. This is also when the distractions came flooding in.

More time was dedicated to design revisions. I had more time to manage a team, so I built a team of 12 illustrators, animators, and content writers. Getting the cogs rolling internally started taking up 50% of my bandwidth. Soon the next 30% of my time was consumed by fundraising.

Only the last 20% of my time was spent doing what mattered. Talking to users, rinsing, and repeating.

When to actually quit your full-time job

I’m not saying that undivided attention is a detriment to building a startup. Rather, I’d encourage you to hold off just a bit longer, until you find more confidence around product-market fit.

Once you’ve derisked some of the fundamentals and know users will stick around for more than a few weeks, it’s time to inject your startup with the time and capital needed to double down on your learnings. Quit your full-time job. Raise money if it fits your business model.

If I were to do it all again

I’d keep things as lean for as long as possible. I’d be more disciplined with my definition of an MVP. Even after you commit to your product full time, don’t forget to stop along the way and stay vigilant about your time and focus.

God speed and I wish you well on your hyper-focused startup journeys!

Feel free to connect with me on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, or www.hemurahman.com. Always happy to chat all things startups!