Maybe some of you are thinking about a similar leap and will benefit from this reflection.
Or maybe it's just for future me to read back on this and be like "yeah, you did the damn thing, stop doubting yourself” 💪
↓ ↓ ↓
⭐️ PROS ⭐️
- still working insane hours but more in control of my time and can set aside space to think and plan
- less bureaucracy (not Amazon-specific, any bigger company will feel that way)
- crazy fast iteration speed, pivots, builds, tool adoption, testing, launching; we can test a tool in the morning, buy it, and change our entire workflow, all in the same day
- made a lot less money for honestly 6 months spinning things up, now make more (I made a full financial plan before leaving, def recommend)
- very high agency, can say yes/no to any client, freaking love my clients and team
- more flexibility, can meet fellow Al leaders and multipreneurs, can work from home/road/plane/walk, big shoutout to Ethan, Cassie, Sinead, Rachel, Conor, Alexander for being some of my closest collaborators
- team can get in lightning-focused deep work mode and pull off magic, very little distraction
- obsessed with running an Al-first team and feel like we're literally reinventing work every day
- a lot of days are scary, I’m pushing myself outside my comfort zone often and loving it
😶 CONS 😶
- holy heck, way more legal, financial, and admin work than I was expecting (accounting, contracts, banks, quickbooks, legal reviews, NDAs, taxes); partially solved by Al, tools, and having an amazing agent, accountant, lawyer, and exec assistant
- less access to enterprise-grade research/data (AWS is filled with thousands of brilliant people and some Slack threads are just streams of intelligence + free enterprise seats to stuff like CB Insights); partially solved by consulting partnerships
- miss the AWS team; already hired one of them and still collab/hang with many
- been dealing with scarcity mindset and provider mode; I'm working with my amazing exec coach Deborah on this, have done a lot of work on it in the last two years, looking fwd to more
- it takes consistent bravery to run your own business; it can be exhausting
- way more travel than expected
- feels like we're just getting started
One of my bigger realizations is that the entrepreneur life is not better or worse than big tech, it's just different.
If you're a business owner, give a shout in the comments. I've been in your shoes only two years and have the utmost respect for you, your passion, and your conviction. Seriously.
This post was originally shared by Allie K. Miller on Linkedin.