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I normally like helping people with morally ambiguous things on this site because I feel bad for the posters, but this is just scummy. If you don't want the salary anymore, put in your 2-3 weeks and then move on to your next venture. Don't do something if you're not willing to put 100% into it. Let somebody else that wants the experience interview for your role.

Doing what you're thinking of doing is a bad show of character, and that mindset will stick with you and come about in unseen ways when working on the start-up venture.

 

Trust me when I say I have no pride or "haha fuck you im out losers" attitude about what I want to do, if I did I wouldn't be asking how to go about this as gracefully as possible, still realizing it's going to hold a seat that could go to someone else and shift my workload burden onto teammates

I need to do what's best for myself the same way a firm may decide to lay-off a bunch of people because that's what best for the firm (which my firm did earlier this summer), as "scummy" as that may be (but keep in mind all I want to do is have my job until I prove the startup isn't a dud and I'm left jobless in one of the shittiest job markets in history; not like I'm dumping chemicals into a drinking water river to save a buck in costs...)

Not to sound cliche but this is purely business and not personal

 

I've done what you're thinking before and I would not recommend it at all. You really never know who might be someone super valuable to have in your network / liking you -- it's never worth the few thousand to grab. If you want, wait a month thinking about if you really want to leave before you give your notice, but don't try to get fired.

 

Yeah I second this. A lot of VCs are ex-IB, and it's a pretty small community (despite you being in MM IB in the Midwest). If you ever need VC money and this comes up during reference calls, you can say good-bye to funding. Most investors including myself would never back a founder who did what you're thinking of doing.

But if you think you can bootstrap your startup and turn it into a rocket ship without needing outside help, go for it.

 

Trust me when I say I have no pride or “haha fuck you im out losers” attitude about what I want to do, if I did I wouldn’t be asking how to go about this as gracefully as possible, still realizing it’s going to hold a seat that could go to someone else and shift my workload burden onto teammates

I need to do what’s best for myself the same way a firm may decide to lay-off a bunch of people because that’s what best for the firm (which my firm did earlier this summer), as “scummy” as that may be (but keep in mind all I want to do is have my job until I prove the startup isn’t a dud and I’m left jobless in one of the shittiest job markets in history; not like I’m dumping chemicals into a drinking water river to save a buck in costs...)

Not to sound cliche but this is purely business and not personal

 

Let’s get this straight... you want to keep getting paid the same amount you otherwise would but without having to work hard? Until you get laid off so you don’t have to deal with clawing back signing bonuses? Kinda scummy man.

Wait till your contract is up, use your savings to start your new venture, and dive in with 100% of your time, not splitting 50/50 with an investment banking job that pays you like you are working 100%. You’re already in an advantageous position being able to save as much money as you have been able to (presumably), and at a young age as well.

Entrepreneurs don’t ride fences. Friends come and go, and enemies accumulate. People will remember how you leave, not how you performed up until you started half-assing.

 

If your tag is right says you have to start full time? In which case respectfully tough to believe in your advice until you’ve sunk two years of 80 hour weeks of your life to have that perspective

The whole entrepreneur sitting on the fence thing is bs too, assuming you mean it in context of having to quit their job to be off the fence. Any budding entrepreneur Will tell you to not ditch your more stable career if you can in case shit goes south in the first inning.

 

Listen, I’ve got no expectation that you’ll care about my 2 cents. Simply airing an opinion on the situation, and offering up some thoughts based on advice I’ve been given. I’ll note that I am very close to a number of entrepreneurs who have been very successful, and these aren’t really my words and more so theirs. Take that for what you will, and good luck.

 

This is a bad idea.

First off, your attitude is one that raises red flags and I don’t think will get you very far. “Screwing over” contacts, whether they are close or not, is a bad idea. The attitude that you can do this since you’ll be in a different industry/area shows that you lack the maturity and business sense to know how this works. You need friends when trying to start something up on your own, not enemies, and if you strike out, even if you move to another industry you do not want enemies. If you truly burn a bridge (questionable if you will or if people will just think you are a screwup) do you want those people as enemies?

That being said, most senior people won’t really notice or give much thought to it. But in this environment you’ll probably get fired pretty quickly (depending on your bank) so your ROI calc seems off. You will earn a bit of money, leave by being fired (instead of quitting), and burn bridges. How long do you think you can keep this up for? 2 months? 3? Let’s say it is $30k, so $15-20k after taxes, worth it?

I think you are being short sighted. You also must understand how hard it is to get a job right now (and will most likely be difficult for the foreseeable) future, it is MUCH safer to leave gracefully, keep your contacts, and have them go to bat for you if you don’t make it in the startup (introducing you to firms, offering their contacts, etc).

Just run the probabilities. Probability that your startup works, that you can land another job (which you’ll need references for), etc. The $20k after taxes is peanuts compared to what you are giving up.

 

This. And since OP mentioned waiting until they have revenue, take another 10k off the post-tax number for a FINRA OBA fine and a suspension. Your potential VCs will quickly find that, not a good look

IMO here's your best move if you really won't quit: Take a 3rd year. Live frugally to give yourself 50-80k savings to live on while you're pre-revenue. Plan your startup during downtime and weekends - agree the hours aren't conducive, but you can definitely slack off a bit if you're leaving and get at least 15-20 hours a week into development. Dip out with some savings and more experience with your startup.

 

@ the FINRA fine thing, good to know and be aware of, although certainly I’m not the first to get a startup off the ground while working in IB? At the risk of giving my bank away we don’t get certified until we’re associates either so not an issue here but interesting nonetheless

I guess what I am asking here is how much can I slack off then to get to be able to have that free time to work on the startup, because right now it’s just not there, and I know people will say oh well it’s not like you’re grinding 24/7 you do have downtime fine okay fair but shifting focus back and forth isn’t exactly easy and the downtime isn’t abundant to begin with either

 

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