You know that resilience is a key quality of a successful founder.

You’ve heard the stories of perseverance.

Is the big breakthrough just around the corner?

Or are you the last one to realize what is obvious to everyone else: it’s time to find a different path.

It’s hard because:

• Your determination and ability to ignore the doubters is what got you here!

• Startups have high highs and low lows. It might be a dip not a downward slope.

• You’ve heard the stories about billion dollar companies being 1 day away from defaulting on payroll or taking 3 years to find authentic demand. What if that’s you??

All great founders start multiple companies. They don’t all work out. Shutting something down is hard but it can also be the start of the next big thing.

(It’s why we love working with second-time founders in our Studio — regardless of the outcome of previous companies!)

If you’re wondering if it’s time to pivot, find a soft landing, or wind things down, here are 6 considerations to guide you.

1. Is this worth your time?

It’s good. But is it great?

You are awesome. (As are all founders and O’Daily readers. 😉)

Time is limited.

Could you be doing something bigger and better with more authentic demand and more potential to be a billion dollar business?

It’s hard no matter what. Make it worth it.

2. How does it compare to other success stories?

Talk to founders who are doing really well. Talk to later-stage founders who built something big.

Ask them:

• what it felt like early on

• when they knew

• what the growth rate was

• what challenges they had

• how it compared to other businesses they started

At Pardot, our marketing manager did implementations for a year because we were onboarding customers so fast.

We were promoting people every 6-12 months.

We had upset customers that didn’t quit because the product was too helpful.

Everyone on the sales team hit quota multiple quarters.

That’s what it feels like when things are working.

3. When you ask trusted advisors, what do they say?

When was the last time you asked a fellow startup founder, investor, or mentor this question:

“If you were me, what would you do?”

It might be that no one will proactively tell you, but they are thinking it and waiting for you to ask.

(P.S. If you want an objective perspective from someone who has seen a lot of companies at different stages and traction levels, feel free to reach out. I’m always happy to ask a bunch of questions and give honest, kind feedback.)

4. Are you the only one who can sell it?

Have you tried multiple times to bring on sales people?

Founder-led sales are key early on and it can take a misfire or two before you hit your sales stride.

But if the product can only be sold with founder magic, it’s time to ask why.

(See the Pardot sales example above!)

Another watch out: growth that’s steady but not accelerating. You should be bringing on customers at an increased rate over time!

5. What are customers saying?

Do they get mad when things are broken?

Are they referring other customers to you?

Do they email you to rave about your product or relentlessly share feedback?

If your customers like you but don’t love you, that’s concerning.

What’s most likely is that a few customers love you.

Enough to give you hope but not enough to accelerate the fly wheel.

You need most customers to love you.

That’s how you know you’re a must-have, 10x better product that people want!

6. Has the boulder picked up speed?

We worked with a founder who tried several businesses before landing on a great idea with authentic demand.

His comment:

“This feels completely different. The boulder is rolling downhill.”

The previous ideas had been months of selling, testing, delivering, iterating — over and over without meaningful customer enthusiasm or momentum. It was a slog.

It was pushing the boulder up a hill instead of chasing it down a hill.

At the beginning every founder is pushing a boulder uphill. That’s the search for authentic demand.

When you find a hair-on-fire problem or unique insight, the boulder crests the hill.

Then you’ve got a rolling boulder. It’s easy, exciting, and fast!

Trying to control a boulder downhill is still really hard with it’s own challenges. It can go off the rails, you’re trying to keep up, it has a life of its own.

But it’s a different hard than pushing a boulder slowly, slowly up a hill.

Doing Hard Things

It’s hard to build a startup.

It’s harder to shut one down.

The best founders I know have as many failures as successes.

What they do really well?

They know when to move on.

They can see the big picture without ego.

They have courage, self-awareness, and a willingness to learn.

They want to spend their time on a downhill boulder…and will keep going until they find one!

For more advice on this hard topic, check out Time To Pivot Your Startup, Or Time To Move On? from fellow Atlanta Ventures partner A.T. Gimbel.

How did you know it wasn’t working? What is a subtle sign that founders often miss? Any advice for a founder thinking about whether to continue or change course?