Leaving my Apple Engineering Job—2 Years Later
A little under 2 years ago I quit my Apple engineering job and wrote this blog post:
Read on to see how I came up with a plan to quit, it failed immediately, and then I found new opportunities I wouldn’t have if I stayed.
What I thought would happen
I wanted to start something new, but I obviously needed a plan first. I worked hard to line up a startup idea and a co-founder, not to mention some product validation and prep work. I wanted to convince myself the plan would work so I’d have the courage to take the leap.
Logistically, I had a part-time interview-prep instructor job lined up and some savings.
I was so confident that I put on my lease application that I had a business that should be generating revenue in a few months. We’d crunched the numbers on the size of the market and we were solving an urgent problem.
What actually happened
Three months later we shut down the company.
Looking back, I made two big mistakes:
First, I was overly eager about the idea based on a small amount of positive feedback from potential customers. We had no commitments to purchase and for B2B SAAS this is key, you should always get an informal “letter of intent” signed before building anything.
Second, I thought too little and optimistically about the level of risk I was taking on relative to my co-founder. After circumstances and commitments changed, we parted ways. It sucked to have wasted time but compared to the 10 years it takes to build a company it was a fairly small setback.
What happened next
I started looking for another startup idea and networking. I was surprised that many asked me to consult as their CTO while I was between things and I’ve since been able to do so for four great companies so far.
The fractional CTO role is great. You get all the fun of building startups with less risk and time commitment. I help people build, we learn together, and I have leftover time to work on my own projects. Sometimes I also surf.
The shock was that I’m now happier doing something I only discovered after I quit my job. I thought the best path was to burn savings until I started a business but I found there was a whole set of other doors that opened simply by quitting.
I had to have a plan to motivate, but in hindsight it failed and didn’t matter much. They say the dots only connect looking back. If you want change, the best course might be to just take a leap and see what happens.
I’ve also made well more than I’ve spent since leaving. I didn’t even burn my hard-earned savings like I’d agonized over.
Looking forward
I still want to start my own company, but since it’s not my “escape plan” anymore I have time to find the right opportunity. Many fractional CTO’s I’ve talked to live comfortably via that work alone and have made it their primary career. That’s in my back pocket as an option. Hopefully I’ll figure out Plan A and write about it next. Until then, don’t be afraid to believe in yourself and take a risk. It worked out for me.
Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn to see what’s next: https://twitter.com/jakespracher
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