Ask HN: Job promotion vs. startup

Need advice!

My full-time job is a technical lead and there is a major 3-5 year effort at the company to revamp the processes, upgrade the applications and technology stack and move to cloud. They'd like me to be the technical lead for one of the business critical applications. I also have a startup with a friend where I work part-time and my co-founder works full-time. We're hoping to raise money this year/next year and when we do I'll go full-time on the startup.

The 3-5 year project at my full-time job would give me additional responsibilities and could be a major career stepping stone while at the same time I would have less time to spend on the startup especially when we're pretty close to raising money.

I'm torn, I don't want to give up the opportunity at work but I'm also not happy about not being able to give more time to the startup.

I'm pretty sure many of you have had the same dilemma or been in this situation.

Your advice is appreciated.

If it's your own startup, you're screwing your cofounder by being part-time. The number of times I've heard a variant of "and they'll come on fulltime later!" is huge, and something that at least some investors I know of look at as a warning flag.

If you're still in the mindset of "well, my corporate overlords will let me be tech lead for 3-5 years, and and and I'll get responsibilities and maybe even a career stepping stone" then you aren't in the right headspace to be part of a startup. Cut loose and let your friend find somebody who is mature enough (or dumb enough) to tackle that position of responsibility.

The pay and benefits will be waaaaaaay better, in all odds, sticking with the corporate job. You will grow a lot more and learn more seriously pursuing a startup, and nobody worth anything will think less of you if that's on your resume instead of a corporate gig.