Left a stable PM role at a big tech company 3 years ago to start a vertical SaaS tool. Here are 5 things I wish I’d known before handing in my notice. None of it is what most people post about.

1. Former coworkers almost never become customers. They’ll happily take your coffee and give you “feedback,” but actual paid conversions from that network were under 4%. The relationships that matter are the ones you build after you’ve shipped something real.

2. The “boring” operational work (invoicing, onboarding docs, compliance, support triage) will take 60-70% of your time in year one. Product work felt like a luxury I had to earn back. The companies that last treat operations as the actual product.

3. Your runway math is almost certainly optimistic. Between self-employment taxes, losing employer health benefits, and the random $3-5k “startup taxes” (tools, legal, AWS surprises), money disappears faster than the spreadsheet predicts.

4. Most founder advice you read online is either outdated by two years or written by people whose companies succeeded for reasons they don’t fully understand. The useful stuff usually comes from people who quietly failed and kept going anyway.

5. The loneliness hits harder than the financial risk. Having nobody to vent to at 11pm about a customer who churned is the part that actually wears you down. If you’re considering the leap, talk to three founders who are 18-24 months in — not the ones on stage.