4 builders who never spoke to each other

Keep the salary until the product clears your risk

Leave the paying work only when revenue covers the downside you personally carry, with a savings buffer already in place, because quitting early once meant burning the runway and going back to employment. Where you need to buy the time, sell a course on what you just learned building the thing, and when two side projects compete, back the one already taking money however small.

The method

1. 01

   Keep the salaried job until the product actually pays the bills, because quitting early once meant burning the runway and going back to employment.

2. 02

   Hold off quitting the paying job until the product's revenue clears the risk you can actually carry, and build a savings buffer first.

3. 03

   Fund the leap to working full time on the product by selling a course on the thing you just learned doing it.

4. 04

   When you have to choose between two side projects, back the one that is already taking money, however small the figure.

5. 05

   Keep freelancing on the side longer than feels right. Both Leadsie founders freelanced until about eighteen months into the business, and only went full time once it paid each of them somewhere around 3,000 to 4,000 euros a month.

What it returned

• 3,100

  Over 3,100 signups and 250,000 scheduled posts at about $2k MRR on a freemium model, still built evenings and weekends.

• 2018

  In late 2018 Fathom was earning below $1,500 a month and their other product Pico was earning nothing, so they shelved Pico and put both of them on Fathom.

• Jack Ellis waited for Fathom's revenue to rise before leaving his main client, citing a spouse and child lowering his tolerance for risk, and topped up savings ahead of the move.

• Jack Ellis built Serverless Laravel out of his experience scaling Fathom, worked through February on it, launched in early March, and hundreds of people bought it.

Sources

• Bootstrapper's paradoxJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · SaaS launch example · undated
• The Freedom LadderJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Don't quit your job until you have sustainable revenue · undated
• Johannes Radig — Traveling the World and Raising Prices – The Bootstrapped FounderJohannes Radig · thebootstrappedfounder.com · 2024-03-27
• I quit my job to work on Fathom Analytics full time - Fathom AnalyticsJack Ellis · usefathom.com · I quit my job to work on Fathom Analytics full time · 2020-04-27
• I Disappeared for 7 Months. Here's What Happened.Luca Restagno · solopreneurtofreedom.com · 🔢 The Numbers Behind the Scenes · 2026-02-06