INPUT DECISION: Whether to quit my full-time job to work on my SaaS full-time CONTEXT: My SaaS (invoicing tool for freelance designers) makes $2,100 MRR, growing about 8% a month for the last 6 months. I have 14 months of personal savings. My job pays well and my manager likes me. My partner is supportive but nervous. I work on the SaaS evenings and weekends and I am getting tired. DEADLINE: I need to tell my manager by the end of the month if I want to leave before the next project starts STAKES: My savings, a gap on my CV, and possibly the relationship if money gets tight OUTPUT (Claude Opus, unedited; sections 2, 4, 5 and 6 omitted from this preview) ## 1. The decision, restated You are choosing between (a) resigning by end of month to go full-time on the invoicing SaaS, (b) waiting and changing nothing, so you keep the job and keep working evenings and weekends, and (c) a smaller, reversible version: asking your manager for a 4-day week or a 3–6 month unpaid leave from the start of the next project, and quitting only when the SaaS hits a trigger you set in advance. Why I reframed it: you framed this as quit vs. stay, but your two real problems are fatigue and not knowing whether full-time hours would speed up growth. A manager who likes you makes option (c) realistic, and the end-of-month deadline is only the deadline for a clean exit before the next project. It is not your last chance to leave. ## 3. Pre-mortem It is September 2027. You quit at the end of September 2026, and it failed badly. These risks overlap, so the ranges do not add up to 100%. 1. **Full-time hours didn't speed up growth.** Growth came from word of mouth or one channel that didn't respond to extra hours, so MRR kept rising at about 8%, or slower, to roughly $5,300 by month 12. That is still likely well below your old salary (assumed), while savings drained. **30–45%.** *Earliest warning sign:* after your first 6 full-time weeks, net new MRR per month is no higher than the ~$170/month you now add working part-time. 2. **You spent the time building instead of selling.** Extra hours went into features for freelance designers who were already paying, not into getting new ones. The product got better but the customer count didn't. **25–40%.** *Earliest warning sign:* by week 4, fewer than a third of your working hours are on acquisition (outreach, content, partnerships). 3. **The 8% growth rate was decaying and you didn't notice.** A percentage on a small base hides trouble. Your reachable pool of freelance designers or your main channel saturated, and churn ate new revenue. **20–35%.** *Earliest warning sign:* net new MRR in dollars is flat or falling over any 2 consecutive months, even if the percentage still looks fine. 4. **Money stress broke the relationship before the business failed.** Your partner was already nervous, and without an agreed floor every dip in savings became an argument. You went back to a job under pressure, on worse terms. **15–30%.** *Earliest warning sign:* money conversations happen more than once a month, or your partner asks "how long until…" before month 4. 5. **The real runway was shorter than 14 months.** Losing employer benefits, paying tax on SaaS income, and insurance (assumed to apply in your country) burned savings faster than the 14 months you counted. **15–25%.** *Earliest warning sign:* actual spend in month 1 or 2 is more than 10% above your planned monthly burn. ## 7. Recommendation **Option (c): don't resign this month. Ask for a 4-day week, or failing that a 3–6 month unpaid leave, from the start of the next project, and quit fully when tripwire 1 is hit. Confidence: medium.** Reason: $2,100 MRR growing 8% a month is real but small in dollars, you haven't shown that more hours speed up growth, and option (c) tests exactly that and eases your fatigue while leaving your savings and your relationship almost untouched. **Next action within 48 hours:** build a one-page numbers sheet covering the last 6 months of net new MRR, churn and customer sources, plus your real monthly burn after quitting with SaaS income as an offset. It's what you need for both the conversation with your partner and the one with your manager. ## 8. Decision memo **Decision:** I'm not resigning this month. I'll ask for a 4-day week, or a 3–6 month unpaid leave, from the start of the next project. I'll quit fully only when the SaaS hits a trigger we agree in advance. **Options considered:** (1) quit at end of month; (2) keep working on the SaaS evenings and weekends; (3) reduced hours or leave, with a quit trigger. **Why this one:** $2,100 MRR growing 8% a month is real but small in dollars, about $170 of new MRR a month. I don't yet know whether more hours speed up growth. Reduced hours tests that, fixes my exhaustion now, and protects our savings. **Main risk:** the extra day doesn't move growth and I've taken a pay cut for little. Or the request is refused and I'm back to a straight quit-or-stay choice. **Tripwires:** I quit when the SaaS covers 50% of our monthly costs for two months running. If growth falls below 4% for two months, I stop and diagnose. If I've quit and savings drop below 8 months, I start job-hunting immediately. **Next step:** a numbers review together this week, then a manager conversation by 21 September.