Leaving the startup

I left my last startup role in January. Two years building voice and AI products at Hyper, and I walked away.

It didn’t fail. The product works fine. The team’s solid. There’s runway.

I left because I remembered what I actually want out of work.

The startup pitch

Build something big. Change an industry. Equity upside. Be part of something. It’s compelling. I’ve fallen for it more than once.

And every time, around year two, the same thing happens. You’re building someone else’s vision. Making trade-offs you wouldn’t choose. Sitting in meetings about the work instead of doing the work. Optimizing for growth numbers instead of building something you’re proud of.

That’s not a criticism. It’s just how startups work.

What I actually want

After doing this for 25 years, I know what gets me out of bed:

Building things that work properly — not MVPs, not proofs of concept, but real software that holds up. Working directly with the person who has the problem. Picking my own tools and approach. Solving different problems every few months instead of grinding the same codebase for years.

Consulting gives me all of that.

The Marcus Aurelius bit

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

I don’t need an exit. I need interesting problems and the freedom to solve them my way. So that’s what I’m doing.

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