Founders winding down their companies:
- Please, please don’t jump straight into another startup project. You might overestimate yourself, but at this point you’ve probably depleted your emotional and mental energy
- Give yourself at least one year of “licking the wounds” period
- Unlike some conventional advices, I wouldn’t really recommend going to a big company either. I think that’s too much of a 180. Big companies are stable (perfect for “licking the wound”), but they come with their own problems: politics, bureaucracy, and feeling like a small cog in a big machine.
- Instead, I’d take on a few consulting projects with startups. You’ll still stay in the startup world, using your creative muscles, but without the stress of making payroll every month
- I would never do projects at companies in a similar space that your previous startup was in. That will bring back all kinds of memories – good and bad – mostly bad
- How do you get those consulting projects? First step is to put yourself out there. A “Hey, I’m a free agent now” type of social post (which I’m seeing more lately – there are many of these posts that are done really tastefully) can be a great start