Article · 12 min read

Quitting Our Jobs to Follow Our Callings

Alessandro DiSanto and Erich Kerekes · Indie Hackers Free Beginner

A concrete account of co-founders going full-time on a stagger, not in lockstep: Erich left his job in July 2018 to run sales and marketing while Alessandro stayed in private equity and only quit months later, after the product had shipped and pulled 4,000+ downloads in under a month. It is the closest real example to your situation, where one founder is in and the other is deciding, and it shows the leap tied to a shipped product and early traction rather than a vibe. Use it to pressure-test your own 'hard date to go full-time.'

• Co-founders can go full-time on a stagger, but each leap was pinned to a milestone (a launched product, real download and rating numbers), not left open-ended
• The full-time founder carried the operating load (sales and marketing) while the other finished at his job, which is workable only if the imbalance is named and time-boxed, not permanent
• Set your own trigger: theirs was a shipped app and early traction, so decide what proof lets the part-timer quit, and put a date on it