6 months ago, the technical cofounder left, promoting me into the technical lead.
We have 6 months of runway left, and I'm considering leaving now.
Would it be fair to do so? To leave this project in this final lap feels selfish in one way. In another, I feel that I've given this startup a respectable employee stint.
Thoughts?
The company has no loyalty to you - if they decided tomorrow that you were no longer useful to them, they'd fire you without any hesitation or warning. (I've seen it happen to a lot of people.) Thus, there's no reason to feel that you should have loyalty to the company.
People moving on to different jobs happens all the time. They get better offers, their needs change, they burn out, etc. If your company is run rationally, it should be able to deal with people leaving. If not, it's not your problem. As you noted, even a cofounder of your company has left already.
Is this really going anywhere, or is it just floundering? "We've made many pivots and have had inconsistent growth" sounds like it's just floundering.
In six months, are you actually going to have a product that 1) works and 2) people care about? Or in six months, are you going to have made two more pivots and still not gotten any traction?
If there's a real future, and you leaving would kill it, that's a very different situation than if they're just going to muddle along trying random directions until they run out of money.
You owe them no loyalty and I can fairly confidently say they have none for you either.
Of course I would be happy to be wrong
To sum up, "fairness" is a jejune notion. You are not a cofounder (presumably). You are an employee. Employees are fungible, and employers should be the same in a strong employment market.
It's ok to have only 6 months of runway. Startups are always running out of money!
Did you get a BUNCH of stock options when you got promoted? If not, nothing else matters, leave right away.
If you did get an enormous additional grant, then you are being compensated fairly and you shouldn't base your decision to leave on "6 months of runway left". You've not given any info to assess the quality of this startup, or any useful info on other factors, like general morale, prospects based on the current product direction, strength of team, and so on. The fact you know the runway at all is a decent sign of strength.
It's absolutely fair to leave now! But don't leave for the wrong reasons.
I’ve stuck with startups where I felt (correctly) that self-preservation was the best course, and left one where I felt (correctly) that it was hopeless, after series D no less. In all these cases, leave was the correct choice. Another was financially precarious for all of its life, and the path out of it was really good when it finally got bought, for the opportunities it led to. So leave for the right reasons, or stick it out.
Each situation is different, of course.
Get out while the getting's good, because work won't love you back. It can't.
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free