Dear SaaStr: As a Co-Founder, When Do You Know It’s Time to Quit?

You don’t.

Why? Because 50% or more of the time, it’s because you are tired. And when you’re tired, you don’t always make the right decisions.

Before you quit:

• Talk to 2–3 mentors you trust. See if they challenge you to push on.
• Talk to your co-founders. If they still believe, you probably still should, too.
• See if you can get some help. If you can afford it, hire 1 more person to help you.  And 1 great VP — that can often be magical.
• Don’t let the competition get to you too much. Competition matters. But no one has 100% market share. There is room for you — if you want it badly enough.
• Take a vacation (or at least, as much of one as you can). Try to clear your head before any big decision.
• Be honest about how long it would take you to start over. If you are at even $10k a month in revenue, it might take you years to come up with a better idea and get to paying customers. Starting over usually isn’t worth it.
• Take it a quarter, even a month at a time.  As Peter Gassner, CEO of $30B+ Veeva Systems said below, in the early days he took it quarter by quarter.  Because he didn’t even know if they’d last longer than that.  It’s OK.

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When in doubt, push on. At least a little longer.

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