Doing Startup After Layoff Last Year, Should I Got Back to a Contingent Offer?

After working for the firm for 34 years, I was laid off last year. I decided to build an AI-driven career guidance system - gap2skill to close the learning or skills gap. I have four decades of Project and Software Engineering skills - I learned AI and built the platform using Claude, Gemini and CoPilot. The system went into beta testing in April and already proven to help someone landing on a job. Meanwhile, I interviewed with my former firm and got a contingent offer - as a System Architect - pending government award. However, it has been delayed for five months. My system is almost ready to go Live in a week. I'm near my retirement age in a few months. Should I even consider the position when it comes through? I would love to hear some opinions as this is my first time using Reddit.