Founding team members find themselves more emotionally invested than most other people when it comes to startups. They watch their product journey through developmental stages, achieve funding, and finally launch to great success. However, there comes the point for many founders where the rest of the team is headed in a different direction than was initially thought. Pivoting is necessary for the survival of a start-up. That doesn’t mean you must compromise your values to pivot with your company.

Start-ups are their babies. You worked hours of overtime and watched it evolve into something bigger than you could imagine. Understandably it can be challenging when this project in which you invested so much time, energy, and resources diverges onto another path. At this fork in the road, you must ask yourself:

1. What value can I bring to the company if I’m not mentally invested 100%?

2. What value do I receive staying on board at this company?

When you dig deep and discover the real answers to those questions, you’ll know which decision to make.

It’s important to understand that companies will always change course. If it's not congruent with your vision, it's OKAY to step away. It’s perfectly fine to step away from your brainchild, and honestly, you’ll be a lot happier than if you stay on, dissatisfied with things. One job at one company does not encompass the entirety of your career

If you are only staying because you have options or some monetary compensation that’s locking them in, the salary won’t stop you from hating your life. Sure, a life-changing number that’ll impact your family for generations could be a different situation. With start-ups, though, financial wins are a crap shoot. It comes down to being realistic with the idea that you weren’t the right person to take the company where it wanted to go.

How to exit

Everyone has their reasons for exiting a company. Hopefully they’re all positive reasons, and ideally, they’re all positive departures. Throwing a tantrum or causing scenes doesn’t do anyone any favors. Once you’ve decided to leave, informing your team immediately, in person, the best thing you could do. No letters, nothing. Choose to be proactive.

Being proactive carries heavy importance in everything you do in a startup, including a departure. Far too often people don’t take ownership of their feelings and choose to grin and bear dissatisfaction instead of picking the moral high ground and walking away. Why stay if you’re mentally checked out? Put yourself and your business first.

Choosing to leave is a masterful way of putting your business first. As you join a company, you want to leave it better than how you’ found it. You started your company to make an impact, and tense, anger-ridden departure isn’t the kind of impact you want to leave. If you fizzle out with tension and anger cus you decided to hang on out of spite, that’s going to leave a sour taste in your mouth.

Once you’ve made your decision to exit, clearly define when and how you will depart. Outline how many more weeks you’ll stick around, what projects you’ll complete, and when your duties officially end. If things ended without major conflict, you can be in charge of this and help things resolve gracefully. Face the flack (if people give it to you), resolve what you need to take care of, and focus on your new path.

At the end of the day, a start-up is a chapter of your story and you are a chapter of theirs. Be honest and recognize in yourself when it's time to take the next step in your journey. If you exit with clear communication and grace, it’ll be respected by those you are leaving. Great things lie behind, and even greater success lies ahead.

Check out the Hire Power Radio Show and our interview with John Crittenden for more insight into exiting a startup.

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John R. Crittenden is an entrepreneur with broad experience across asset management, sales and marketing, consumer financial brands, and digital wealth management platforms. Prior to Mondigi, he was one of the first four employees at Acorns and  earliest executives as Director of Institutional Services, one of the first and most successful robo-advisor platforms focused on wealth management

About Rick Girard:

Rick Girard is the Managing Director and Founder of Stride Search, an engaged talent search firm. While not running a School for Gifted Mutants, he hosts Hire Power and creates valuable and tactical content for entrepreneurs to utilize to successfully build an outstanding team