Ask HN: Considering quitting my day job to work on my startups

I launched two start ups about three months ago while still working a full time job. I honestly hoped that things would progress slowly with them and I wouldn't be overwhelmed or burn out. That turned out to not be the case. After launching, I no longer control the pace of things that go on and I find myself constantly focusing on them instead of my day job. My productivity over the past couple of weeks has dropped to almost nothing because I'm coding all day and all night. I'm not really even interested in the projects I'm working on at my day job anymore either. There are really two things that are holding me back right now:

1) The combined net incomes from both ventures is not enough to fully support my financially right now (not to mention I have partners for both companies so it's not like I can take all of the profit for myself anyway). I've got enough savings to support myself for about a year with zero income, so I've got a bit of a runway to see if things will work out and find a job if I need to, but it's still a large gamble.

2) My employer is already trying to hire another developer and has been trying to do so for a few months. Considering how hard of a time they're having finding one developer, I'm concerned that my leaving would put them in a very bad situation. I'm really good friends with everyone at the company and I'm worried that there might be some resentment towards me if I do leave. Then again, I'm not giving them 100% and that isn't fair to them anyway. If I don't quit it's possible that I might be fired down the road anyway.

Have any of you gone through this before? Anyone have any advice? Is there anything I'm probably not thinking about that might blindside me down the road?

Thanks!

Just do it.

As soon as I saw the word "startups" -- plural -- I thought "he's doomed". However, while the popular wisdom is to focus soley on one thing, one startup, I often find that leads to imbalance. Perhaps having two ventures is a good thing.

What I'm doing right now is a 5-6 hours/day job for the bills and working on my projects the rest of the day. Balances out pretty well -- I get physically tired from work and get some social interaction/out of the house/out of my own head. And the rest of my time -- and all of my headspace -- is free to write and code.

But, to get back to you, it sounds to me like you really would rather be working on your projects.

Here's what I'd suggest -- you don't want to leave your boss in the lurch, and you still need some money -- so why not just talk to your boss about working reduced hours, say half-time, so you can help them and have more time for your startups?

Good suggestion. Perhaps you need to hang around to help the new programmer for a couple of months to ensure a smooth handover?

I would ask to start working part-time and quit if they won't let you.