But a lot of really bad founders have raised money during this bubble cycle. The VCs are screaming about the market changing behind closed doors. The founder where I work was recently pressured to fire the team and sell the company.
Make sure you look after yourself. Get your interview skills up and have a list of opportunities. Don’t overcommit to 50+ hour weeks. If they want to pay you 25% more than sure, but don’t fall for the overwork peer pressure by founders who have a 20-100x equity win over you.
Make your own personal assessment of the team, product, and market, and the likelihood of success. Recognize that founders “sell” their belief and my not be honest about issues. I’d probably try to stay to the one year mark and move if you don’t have a strong belief in the company, but be ready to be dropped at a moments notice.
[1] https://www.saastr.com/if-youre-going-to-do-a-saas-start-up-...
That said, it sounds like you have pretty good management. Ask them the exact amount of runway given today's burn rate. Ask them again every month. Also ask them to let you know when you're at ~2 months of runway so that you can be prepared.
I kinda doubt it will turn around, but I suppose I could be wrong. How can you tell for sure?
In my opinion, you should do what makes you happy, even if that means working at a failing startup. That said, you should definitely keep your eye out for other jobs, but don't act on any job offers until you find one you think you would enjoy as much or more than your current job and pays the same or more. You don't want to be stuck out in the cold if your startup fails, but you have plenty of time to look around. Don't rush into anything.
If they're keep discussing all the time without taking real execution or they can't make conclusion fast enought. It might make sense that they will run out of cash before figured out a way to survive.
[1] The purpose of a career is to enable the enjoyment of one's life experiences. No point going to a grave with a great career and nothing else.
Our company (Actor.im) was in such situation. And eventually we spent all our money and for a month we have nothing. During this we go open source (after advices on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9757243) and in a month we got our first customers and in a next year we was much more stable than before. We wasn't able to predict this. CEO have a chance (only small chance) to predict, but employee usually don't think about big picture long enough for this.
Try to think about people with whom you are working with, if you like it, stay with them. You will never regret working in dying startup with a nice people, but if you will quit...
Worse than a bust, many SAAS startups become a regular small business with a few big clients but everyone is disgruntled because the dream of a big payday died. There's nothing wrong with a small SAAS business as long as it doesn't start with "shoot for the moon" fantasies and VC cash. This kind of "exit" will hurt your career. It's better for the entire company to fail. Your future interviewers will not see this kind of business favorably.
You could ride this out until it busts but you could be playing a game of musical chairs. If the company busts due to a problem in the greater economy, then you're stuck trying to land a job before the music stops.
Right now you have the opportunity to turn a well-paid job without stability into an equivalent or better paying job with stability. It is much harder to find a job when you don't have one. Our field is full of pretenders that are out of work. That's why people fail FizzBuzz. You risk being lumped into this category if you're looking for a job after your company busts (or the economy is down.)
If you are feeling that happen, express to CEO and maybe bail.
Its not hard to find the next gig, if you have the "right stuff"
It is better to quit and portray your work there as a short-term gig