For the past five years, I've been living an exhausting double life. I worked my 9-to-5 at a tech company. I'd then go home and work late into the night on the startup I co-founded in 2019 with my wife, Hannah. Working those long hours wasn't sustainable — especially with two young kids, but it took being hospitalized in October 2023 to realize I needed to quit my day job and go all in on our startup.
Genesis of Bloom Stories: From Idea to Implementation
Hannah and I first came up with the idea for Bloom Stories, our erotic audiobook startup, while searching for audio content for couples. Towards the end of 2019, we were looking for something we could enjoy together. Everything addressed a male or a female, and it felt like one of us was being ignored. We thought, "What if we do this ourselves?"
I'm not a good voice actor, so we started looking into narrators that could share some recorded fantasies. Once we found some good people, we realized we could publish this content on a website. We considered using Patreon, but weren't sure if our adult content would fit with their community guidelines. I had previously exited a startup, so I thought we could go beyond creating content and build a business. I knew we needed to have control over the process. I didn't want to rely on third-party platforms that might change the rules at any given time.
Growth and Challenges: Scaling Bloom Stories
Things grew more quickly than we anticipated. By the end of 2020, we had a few thousand user sign-ups per week. We worked with freelancers from Fiverr and Upwork. The best of those freelancers eventually joined our core team from 2022, and today, we have around 15 people.
Hannah wound down her design business in 2021 to fully commit to her role as CEO of Bloom Stories, and she has been taking a salary since 2023. In parallel, things were also going well in my day job. I was promoted three times, and by the end of 2022, I was making six figures. A higher salary was great for financial stability, with two kids and a mortgage. But it came with more responsibility and late-night calls with the San Francisco team.
Realization and Transition: Choosing Passion Over Paycheck
I thought I could manage both until I crashed and burned. In October 2023, I got a cold I couldn't shake. I worked through it until I woke up, and my neck was completely swollen. I saw my doctor, who sent me straight to the hospital. I had an infected lymph node, which didn't go down with antibiotics, so I had to have an operation. I was in the hospital for a week and had to take all of that November off work to recover.
I gained a new perspective on life, work, and family. Hannah and I initially reinvested any revenue from Bloom Stories back into the business. I realized I was cheating myself by giving my labor to Bloom Stories for free. You need to invest in yourself at some point. We decided things had to change and made a plan for me to come to Bloom Stories full-time.
Embracing Change: From Corporate Employee to Startup COO
I took a pay cut to do a job I loved. We made a list of financial goals Bloom had to hit by the end of 2024 to be able to invest in my salary as COO. I wasn't willing to take more than a 50% pay cut compared to my tech job. I also wanted to ensure that the launch of our Pride & Prejudice 13-hour erotic audiobook was fully funded before taking a salary.
To begin the transition, I asked for a demotion to my previous role at the tech company, which had a smaller scope and fewer direct reports. There was a pay cut, too. In October 2024, I officially resigned. January 7, 2025, was my first full day at Bloom Stories, and I got my first paycheck at the end of the month. I am making a bit less than my tech job, but not drastically so. The plan is to claim the evenings back. I haven't had a hobby for the past five years.
I'm looking forward to getting back into video games and going to gigs again. I'm also looking forward to spending more time with Hannah, that's not work-related. Next is to work out how we tell our kids about what we do. But hopefully, it's a few years before we have to have that conversation.
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By: insider@insider.com (MaryLou Costa)
Title: Transitioning from Corporate Job to Startup: A Journey of Sacrifice and Success
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/side-hustle-working-in-tech-burn-out-hospital-2025-2
Published Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:39:15 +0000
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