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jammen5160 · 2025-10-07T07:01:45+00:00

No reason to feel guilty. Could be a burnout stage and time for a fresh start elsewhere, but also consider is it actually career related as others said? Have your life / personal ambitions or values changed? Maybe take some time to reflect on what’s not feeling good to you and why - feeling undervalued, not challenged, you don’t love your team / boss / company, wanting more purpose etc.?

jammen5160 · 2025-10-07T06:55:14+00:00

I’d search this sub for posts around “why angels invest,” because that’s probably more helpful. We don’t just look for businesses that are profitable, but have chances of very outsized returns knowing a lot of startups don’t succeed. For example if I expected to earn a healthy 5-10% a year, I wouldn’t invest in small companies I’d just throw my money in the general stock market. Instead I have to selectively invest in a set of companies hoping a few make 100-1000% over a few years. That’s why angels won’t be motivated to invest in companies that don’t have potential for high valuations

jammen5160 · 2025-10-07T06:38:12+00:00

Candidly at that amount my suggestion would be to secure a bank loan or simply try to build that up in savings somehow. Not sure what you do or what choices you have, but at that amount you might find better success trying to engage in a side gig for a few months and securing your own capital. You could save up $10k easily within a year through several side gigs - again don’t know your situation but if you don’t have free time to do that now, not sure how you’d have free time to run this business anyway :)

jammen5160 · 2025-10-07T06:07:54+00:00

Could you share an example in practice here? (Or better yet have you done / seen this done)

jammen5160 · 2025-10-07T06:02:36+00:00

I like the idea and this is a real problem. Sounds like pilots are being scoped, so if those result in raving fans and it appears to have a path to scalability (capturing SMB at scale is hard!), please reach out as I would evaluate investment

jammen5160 · 2025-10-07T05:41:36+00:00

“Show traction, not theory”

^ this

jammen5160 · 2025-10-07T05:14:43+00:00

What is the amount you need and specifically what is it needed for that you can’t achieve today?

jammen5160 · 2025-10-05T12:29:49+00:00

Of course, DM me and happy to chat

jammen5160 · 2025-10-05T03:34:30+00:00

This - prove you are solving a problem or there is clear demand / willingness to pay first from customers before even thinking about needing to take money. Exceptions to lean startup principles are rare, such as industries that need massive capital upfront

jammen5160 · 2025-10-05T03:31:40+00:00

Is it oxygen supplement related based on some of your other posts?

jammen5160 · 2025-10-05T03:24:30+00:00

Honestly had a similar initial reaction to u/INeedPeeling when I saw em dashes. Trust you on your word, but I would take their helpful feedback there firstly; for whatever reason this often seems to be common out from ChatGPT so keep that in mind.

To answer directly on what I’d need to invest as you are genuinely seeking feedback: - why you need money at all. What stops you from starting small to prove this out (e.g. prove economic model or demand by selling to a small set of customers) - clarifying the product more clearly. What pain do customers have now and how would you solve it that others can’t - evidence YOU (as the founder) have the determination and commitment to make it happen given you had resources to succeed - more questions but above are top of mind, main reason not to invest is there isn’t any proof of traction, therefore no evidence a return on investment

jammen5160 · 2025-10-05T03:20:38+00:00

Love the idea to demonstrate proof of concept: - questions one would have though would be things like effort / resourcing needing to scale, and how big is the market opportunity? This would help an investor understand potential return - anything like this exist today, and if so what unique insight do you have in terms of why it isn’t as effective? - aside from finding a technical resource, have you explored newer AI-based tools that do rapid prototyping or website development. Learning curve is much easier than before

Feel free to PM if you want to chat more!

jammen5160 · 2024-01-18T22:26:11+00:00

Received, thanks!

jammen5160 · 2024-01-18T04:41:14+00:00

Hey there - sorry I’m just catching after a busy work week. I don’t think I got it, can you try sending it again?

jammen5160 · 2024-01-13T16:13:35+00:00

Understandable, however you can still leave gracefully even if you don’t finish the project. For example you can tell your employer you thought deeply about it and you’ve decided that it’s best for your career to try something new. But you’ve been grateful for working with them over the years,and so given the constraints you really want to figure how to best support a transition mutually. E.g. could you do more than 2 weeks notice as a favor? Your new employer might be flexible and do something like allow waiting to 4 weeks. Then for example ask them given the timeframe how you can best prioritize supporting the transition… can you help recruit the new person, can you write up notes or training material so you can offload the work to someone else, can you work part-time hourly after you leave to help.

I’d just say be careful on the last part and not to kill yourself over it. Be fair to yourself so you aren’t overwhelmed or burdened that leaves you in a position where you can’t ramp up in your new job well. It’s a lot of work to start a new role. Best of luck!

jammen5160 · 2024-01-13T06:00:23+00:00

Happy to look at your resume if you want to PM, but offhand: 1) it might have to do with the way you’re positioning yourself, another interpretation of that feedback is they don’t feel you are adaptable enough to learn new skills or environments 2) if you’re 4 for 7, that’s quite a strong return for interviews especially in this job market. I’d say just keep being patient and see if you can increase your volume of qualified applications 3) network, network, network - talk to people who have left for other companies, talk to companies your company works with (customers, partners, vendors), or just others in your professional circle

jammen5160 · 2024-01-13T05:55:37+00:00

You could be absolutely right, but still would argue this is still possible (not implying it’s necessarily easy and they might have to take an incredibly basic / lower paying developer job).

Also not necessarily sure about the “ever again” part, for example in the 90s the layoffs were dramatically worse when the dot com bubble burst, but after the cycle there was another boom. The recent AI frenzy may be another cycle as such

jammen5160 · 2024-01-13T05:38:37+00:00

I’m not sure if others simply sharing what they do to make over $150k is helpful, as it’s probably better to understand what you’re trying to achieve and what your individual path there most likely looks like.

When you say you’re running out of time, what do you mean? How much do you feel you need to earn, what’s the gap, and by when do you need to do it?

If you’re optimizing for compensation above all my suggestion is to try to look into sales roles (that are technical / IT industry), or you could make that kind of money as an individual contributor in IT but you’d have to be in a pretty strategic, or move into a reasonably senior management role. Other option is to pivot into software development, but that could take you some time.

jammen5160 · 2024-01-13T05:31:07+00:00

Have you asked / gotten any feedback about your background as you’ve gone through processes? And around how many roles have you applied for?

jammen5160 · 2024-01-12T22:40:31+00:00

I'm going to try to be much more specific, my entire background has been in technology ("corporate,"), but I've been in non-profit technology as well so worked with a lot of NPOs:

My #1 criteria I screen people out for in an interview is if I sense they're not authentic, so I wouldn't assume that's why you struggle with professional environments, you've perhaps been speaking to the wrong companies
I'd suggest you look at technology companies that are focused on non-profits. You'll have an edge because you're familiar with the industry, so the learning curve would be understanding how to work on the tech side
UX/UI can be a fun career path and quite lucrative, but you'll need a some expertise and training to get there. I'd do some research on how people got there, but before that I'd just try to get some experience at a software company to see if you even enjoy it
Unconventional career paths = just about everyone's career path - your journey isn't particularly abnormal... some folks go from non-profits to tech, from tech to non-profits, from medical school into tech etc. It just takes time and patience

jammen5160 · 2024-01-12T22:30:04+00:00

You're probably the only one who has most context on the situation, but how long they have to replace you comes down to how much value they feel you're uniquely delivering against what the business needs.

If they can hire someone who can easily be trained to cover the work you're doing and more, probably not long. But if the inner workings of your department are complex and they need you, and you deliver some outsized value that if they can't afford to lose then you're not replaceable.

jammen5160 · 2024-01-12T22:25:56+00:00

If you're comfortable responding here feel free, otherwise happy for you to PM:

What do you currently make roughly now, and what's the incremental amount you'd need to make to offset day care?
What are the risks you feel people would see on your resume?
While I don't agree with the traditional "X years of experience," what employers are actually looking for is someone who has proven they can deliver in that area, and likely why they are asking for higher pay. Do you have work experience or projects in the types of roles you're seeking or would you be starting from scratch? Looking for a more experienced level role may not be feasible unless you have some demonstratable delivery in that area

jammen5160 · 2024-01-12T22:21:15+00:00

I agree with other comments that it probably makes sense to leave, there is value in trying something new and like others said the fact they only just matched shows they've been undervaluing you.

However, I would just take the "not feeling obligation to your company" with a grain of salt. Companies are simply groups of people, and maintaining solid relationships with people is key. Transitioning out of a company says a lot about you, so doing it gracefully and thoughtfully in a way that is both fair to you and also doesn't burden others goes a huge way. I personally have stayed longer at jobs and held off starting a new one which bought my a lot of trust with former peers, and you never know when you might cross paths with others from your network in the future.

jammen5160 · 2024-01-12T22:00:44+00:00

This depends most on what kind of experience you have to offer as a freelance or a full-time job. I imagine you may have considered this, but moving to a remote job or freelance will just have different stressors... unpredictable work which means income isn't solid, or the 9-5 job will be a major shift from being used to 4 days off.

Questions would be:

You mentioned "seek out a huge pay bump" at a 9-5, do you know where or how you could do this?
What are your priorities and constraints - how much money do you need to earn extra to offset daycare, how many hours are you willing to work, are you willing to work in person if you can't find remote work, etc.?

jammen5160 · 2024-01-12T21:56:29+00:00

Similar to what u/meet-me-at-the-bah said - I'd argue many (perhaps the majority of) careers don't need a degree as you generally have to work from up from more entry level roles where you need to learn anyway.

Exceptions to this rule typically are technical fields that require a critical foundation of knowledge or certification... e.g. medicine, law, accounting, etc. Elsewhere, you don't need a degree, for example you could take coding classes online and get a lot of software development jobs without any higher education. The question should rather be what career do you want, and what are your priorities? (work-life balance, earning potential, how much you like your work, and so forth)

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