Chapter 1: The Day I Left Google

Before I start talking about the day I left Google, let me tell you why I’m starting this series of articles.

It’s almost been 6 months now that I’ve decided to take the leap of faith and launch my start up.

Before doing so, I had no idea what to expect when you start your own company, what challenges I would have to face, what the journey would look like, what it’s like to be an entrepreneur…

This is why I’ve decided to write some articles about the life of a startup, what it’s like to enter the startup’s bubbling ecosystem to give you some insights. This may help or give some tips to people who think about doing the same.

Each article will talk about specific milestones, challenges or events that I get to experience.

Chapter 1: The Day I Left Google

I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life moving in and moving out, in different cities and different countries. Sometimes, 2 or 3 times within the same year. Settling down is not something that I’ve experienced so far. But so far so good.

3 years ago,I had the chance to get a job at Google in Dublin, Ireland. I started in the AdWords customer support team for the french market and after a year, transferred to the sales team to become an account manager.

An evening of March 2015, while having a chat with a friend, I got a business idea. It felt great, felt like I got something, like if I was ready for something new, challenging but scary. What if I was ready to take the leap of faith? Quit my job, quit a comfortable salary and amazing perks for something still blurry and foolish.

I gave my notice in the following days and left three weeks after, ready to take on the journey with some savings.

I was leaving a place with amazing, young and brilliant people for a desk at home, with no social interactions. I want to say it was like a cold shower. Going from a routine job with friends to something new without anyone around…Wow. I once read loneliness is one of the biggest challenges any entrepreneurs have to face. I can confirm.

When you start your company, you work six days a week, at least. And even when you don’t work, you think about it, think about new ways of doing it, how to make it better. But that’s your fuel, what makes you wake up in the morning.

If you don’t like long hours, or if you are afraid of failure, don’t do it :-)

So here I am, almost 6 months after leaving Google, building Refer Me Please day after day. Without any fundings for now, I do what is called bootstrapping. What is bootstrapping? As per definition, “bootstrapping means building a business out of very little or virtually nothing. Boot strappers rely usually on personal income and savings, sweat equity, lowest possible operating costs..”

Life as an entrepreneur is a roller coaster: some days, you feel like you’re on top of the world, the following day, you feel like you’ve reached the bottom and you’re still digging..And damn — the bottom is deep!

But let me tell you something: when you have nothing else but your sweat to put into your company, and you see that your company is growing, that people are talking about you and your company in the press and that you receive amazing feedback, there’s nothing else you can feel but proud. Even if the story may end with a failure, the journey is worth living it.

A famous quote says “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”

To sum up, I came up with a list of pros and cons about starting your own company:

Pros:

Making your own decisions: I answer to no one. I thrive on the fact that the success of my business depends on me. Getting to experience the impact of my choices day in and day out fills me with confidence and keeps me on my toes.

Meeting and working with remarkable people: I feel like I’ve gotten to know some of the most interesting people — many of whom are entrepreneurs like myself. It’s a fantastic community. And my network keeps on growing each and every day.

Freedom: For me, the ability to live where I want and vacation as I please has been invaluable.

Cons:

You’ll put in more hours each week than anyone else you know: So you’d better be passionate about what you’re doing. 40 hours/week is not realistic, 70–80 is more like it.

You’ll always wonder about what you missed out on: Life is short. When you spend most of your time working, you miss out. It’s that simple.

Stress: Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. Because I’m so invested in my business, I can’t help but let it affect me — even though I know I shouldn’t.

Your personal relationships will suffer: For the reasons mentioned before, you have less of yourself to give.

Next week, chapter 2: The Day my startup got featured on Product Hunt