[trb]

This happened to me. I worked on a side project in high school that grew into a company after about eight years of work. Three years and a pivot later we gave up due to decreasing traction, and returned whatever funds were left to the investors.

I moved back to my parents for about a year to work on other side projects, but ended up looking for a job and found an awesome small company that I'm very happy working for. I'm still working on market-focused side projects and without the stress of having to make money/gain traction it's a lot more fun. I really prefer this setup, especially since a small company allows me to scratch most product-development itches I have since there's not a lot of bureaucracy.

A lesson I've learned: Quit early. If you feel bad about the project right now, end it as soon as possible As in, tomrrow. Don't stick around waiting for the big break. I've done exactly that, and while we actually ended up with some paying customers after our pivot, we would've had to achieve an insane growth to be worth anything to my co-founder and me due to the dilution of our shares. It's not worth basically building a new company for the smaller fraction of shares you have after taking an investment.

[mikeokner]

> we would've had to achieve an insane growth to be worth anything to my co-founder and me due to the dilution of our shares.

Seems like that's the bigger lesson in this situation. Never give up so much equity that you cease to care about the outcome of the company.