Chapter 2 Do the Time Third, even if you want to do a startup, you’re far better off joining an existing rock-star or super-strong team. Great startups need great teams, which are rare. Better to join one than try to start one from scratch, which is close to impossible. Fourth, it’s far more difficult than you can imagine. The highs are higher, for sure, but the lows are so low. Most people really aren’t up for that and can’t handle them properly, if at all. For example, are you okay signing a full recourse $750,000 promissory note to fund payroll when all the funding falls through (like I did at my first startup)? While you’ll have more freedom doing a startup, it’s such all-consuming hard work, you probably won’t appreciate it — at least not while you are going through it. It’s hard to enjoy the view when you’re glued to a screen. That said, if it’s truly your calling, go for it. I did. But that’s really the only great reason to start a SaaS startup. The only logical reason, since it is inherently illogical. You have to see something the rest of the world doesn’t see, be so confident in it that you don’t see all the risk, and have nothing in the end that’s better ROI than doing a raw startup. Everyone Has a Year of Hell I once talked to a CEO who, clearly, was miserable. His business was doing $30 million and growing nicely. He was about to introduce a new product that he thought could be game changing, and he had a strong team that he truly enjoyed working with. What was so bad? I don’t know exactly. But what I do know is that he was experiencing what almost all founders experience at least once on the 7–10 year journey: the year of hell. This is never the first year. As tough as that first year is, that’s still an exploration. You are learning, just trying to get something off the ground. You have a small, tight team. It can be incredibly stressful, full of drama, and have some near-death moments. But that struggle is … what it is. You make it, or you don’t, and you’re still in your hypercreative period, figuring something new out, which is always stimulating.