It was a very difficult decision for me, especially having spent a lot of time, effort, and money on CoNotes. However I came to a point where I realized CoNotes was not headed in the direction I needed it to be going, and finding income was a priority.
A couple months ago I mentioned I was job hunting to a few people and a couple friends, Amit and Victor, mentioned that Simply Hired was hiring. Although neither worked there, they had contacts in the company and both referred me to the company. Luckily they weren't put off by the fact that I wrote "Wikipedia" as an interest and I went in for interviews. What I found was a set of talented people that were passionate about their mission (to make job search simple) and really down to earth. It was pretty much the trifecta of work environments...plus In-N-Out and Costco are both less than a 5 minute walk away. That made it a grand slam.
Nevertheless, after I received an offer to join Simply Hired, I still struggled to make my decision. At what point as an entrepreneur, do you stop? For me, it was a gut level decision. With the current fundraising and economic situation, the future of CoNotes was not too bright. I could struggle along and keep things alive for a while, but I wasn't feeling the motivation. And coming to grips that I had lost a lot of the motivation behind CoNotes was the deciding factor.
Since I had made the decision to start job searching, I was putting in much less hours on CoNotes and starting to just become much less emotionally attached to it. This kickstarted a growing level of detachment, which eventually led to a lack of motivation. It wasn't that I didn't believe in CoNotes anymore...it was just that I didn't think I had the energy or stamina to push it over this hump.
So has the startup dream died? I don't think that dream will ever die. But right now I am motivated to make a big difference at Simply Hired. It's only been a couple weeks and I love what I am doing. So lets see where this journey takes me...
4 comments:
Congrats on your new position. SimplyHired is lucky to have you. Hopefully there will be good opportunities there to flex your entrepreneurial muscles. :)
You are better off for having had the CoNotes experience and will now be all the more valuable to Simply Hired and in future roles.
At Kellogg the phrase that is often tossed around is "learn on someone else's dime". But I have found that you first need to throw yourself into the deep end with your own start-up to figure out the things you do not yet know. Then, with your eyes more widely opened you can proceed to head the Kellogg advice.......
Hi Andrew. I was poking around with LinkedIn and came across your profile and after a few links here and there, I came across CoNotes & your blog. Being in similar shoes as you, I also took the route of working at a startup -- and I think it will benefit you immensely _when_ you do get back to wanting to start your own product. Keep the head up!
Best,
Steve
We sure are lucky to have you. Thank goodness for that Costco! :)
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