Burned through $34K in savings building a SaaS. Got a job. Still running it on the side. Here's why I think this is actually the right move.

Quit my job in March 2023 to go full-time on my SaaS. Had $47K in savings. Figured I had 12-18 months of runway.

By October 2025 I was down to $13K with an MRR of $1,847.

The math wasn't working. At my burn rate I had 5-6 months left. At my growth rate I'd need 14 months to hit $5K MRR. The lines didn't cross in time.

So I got a job. Senior product role at a mid-size company. $156K base.

Felt like giving up. Felt like I'd wasted 19 months and $34K to end up back where I started.

But here's what actually happened:

The SaaS kept running. I spend about 12 hours a week on it now instead of 50. Support tickets get answered at night. Features ship slower but they still ship.

MRR today: $3,240. Up from $1,847 when I got the job.

Turns out most of those 50 hours a week weren't productive. I was filling time because I felt like I should be working. Refreshing dashboards. Tweaking landing page copy for the 30th time. Reading about growth tactics instead of executing them.

With only 12 hours a week, I only do what matters. Talk to users. Fix bugs. Ship one small feature. That's it.

The job also removed the desperation. I'm not looking at every signup wondering if this is the one that keeps me alive another month. I can make better decisions because I'm not scared.

I used to think going full-time was the only "real" way to build a startup. Now I think that's survivor bias from the people it worked out for. The ones who burned through savings and failed don't write blog posts about it.

Maybe I'll go full-time again when MRR hits $10K and I have 12 months runway saved up. Maybe I won't. Either way, the SaaS is healthier now than when it was my whole life.

Anyone else running a SaaS while employed? How do you structure your time?