10 reasons you should have a baby, buy a house, quit your job and start a business

Ok, I know that headline looks like click bait, but I promise you that it isn’t.

After 10 years working with a great company, bringing in a pretty good salary and having about as much job security as you can ask for, I made the decision to walk away from it all to launch a technology startup. The crazy part is that I’m no 23 year old developer with nothing to lose. I have a wife, 2 kids (a 3 year old and a newborn) and a Vancouver mortgage, which is like 3 regular mortgages in any other city.

I thought I would share my story, not necessarily to inspire others to do the same, but more to show that it isn’t as scary as it sounds.

On January 13th, my wife and I welcomed our second son, Henry, into the world. 2 weeks later, still a bit sleep deprived, I handed in my resignation to my employer, the company where I started as a sales rep and grew to the role of VP. Before my last day of paid employment we also closed on a new house in Vancouver, leaving behind our very cool, but very cramped, Yaletown condo. The news of our major life changes definitely raised some eyebrows among family and friends, more than a few people likely thought I was one convertible corvette away from a full blown third-life crisis (I’m not quite at mid-life just yet). How these choices all turn out is yet to be seen, but I can promise you that they weren’t rash decisions, and they aren’t as scary as they may seem. Here’s 10 reasons why;

1. My dad did it first

In 1984, my parents bought a new house and had their first child….me. That same year my dad quit his job and started up a construction company in Edmonton, Alberta. Here’s the kicker, in the early 80's Canada was in the midst of a recession. Unemployment was at 12% and interest rates peaked at 18%! That’s like buying a house on a Walmart credit card. He had to work hard and my parents had their share of challenging times but he did it, under much less favorable conditions.

2. A mortgage is more secure than rent

Yes, a mortgage has a higher absolute monthly cost than rent, but if you lock in for 5 years at today’s super low rates, a mortgage payment is actually more secure. Rent goes up, a locked in mortgage doesn’t. Also, your landlord can’t kick you out, it’s much easier to plan out the next 5 years of your life knowing you have a place to live.

3. Work / life balance is easier

I know, it sounds weird doesn’t it. Yes, you work more hours, yes there is more pressure on owning your own business. Interestingly though, when work and life become the same thing it opens up a bunch of new experiences. I regularly have lunch with my wife and kids and I never miss dinner. I start my day hours earlier than I did before and I may be up until 2 am writing a blog post sometimes, but there are moments that I enjoy now that I never had before.

4. Technology becomes your best friend

The tools we use to run Pressboard are also incredibly useful for managing your home life. You can use enterprise accounting software like Xero to keep your family finances in better order, Dropbox is a great place to store your personal documents, photos and files. The cloud based mindset of a tech startup can teach you how to make your personal life much more organized and easier to access too.

5. You see finances differently

As a startup, especially one that is bootstrapping like we are doing, you are very aware of key performance metrics that give you insight into the health of your company. New users, cost of acquisition, profitability, burn rate, revenue run rate, financial runway etc. I’ve never been able to look at my personal finances in that same way before, but once you do it becomes almost calming. I know my personal financial runway (number of months until I’m out of savings based on current spend rate), when I need to raise personal investment (borrowing from the bank or from RRSP’s), and how the next 5 — 10 years are projected to look. Before doing this I always just figured you needed to put money into savings to maybe use one rainy day, now I have a lot more control and security in my own financial future.

6. The guilt disappears

I used to travel at least once a month for work. I always felt a twang of guilt leaving my family behind, even though I knew it was a part of the job. I still travel now, but it’s completely within my control and I make really, really good use of my time away. My cofounder and I just returned from a week long trip to Toronto. We had 15 meetings in 4 days and we didn’t take a meeting that wasn’t important to our roadmap. I knew that this was not just part of my job, it was a part of my life.

7. You’re not on your own

When you start up a new company you aren’t actually going out on your own, quite the opposite. Your family is definitely your primary source of support, and I’m lucky enough to have the best team out there in that regard. My co-founder Tiam and I are in this together as well. We are not only colleagues but our futures, finances and lives have been locked into synch. What he does affects me, and what I do affects him. When you find the right partners for your business, whether it’s co-founders, family and friends or investors, they’re with you through the good and the bad.

8. The upside is limitless

With risk comes the possibility of reward. The upside to Pressboard personally and financially is limitless. We aren’t trying to be the next Facebook, we’re trying to be the first Pressboard.

9. The downside is limited

The opposite isn’t true about the downside, it does have a limit. The biggest risk is to run out of money before we can solve the problem that we are trying to solve and have to figure out another way to do it. When you think of it that way, the downside isn’t really that scary, at worst I would be a much smarter, more experienced version of my current self.

10. It’s a pretty fun ride

To be clear, this isn’t the end of a story, it’s really just the beginning. We’re only a few months in to this adventure but I’ve already seen the drastic and unexpected benefits that come with taking a few calculated risks. While I still get the odd looks and concerned tone when I tell my story, I’m excited to see where this goes.

Thanks for listening to my story, I would love to hear your story too and if you want to get involved with Pressboard in any capacity we’re always open to hearing from you. Send me a note at jerrid@pressboard.ca, even if it’s just to tell me that you think I might be a bit crazy.

Jerrid Grimm

@jerridgrimm