Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

It seems that your biggest fear is spending years burning through your savings without building anything successful. That's a definite possibility. So why not focus on mitigating that? Simply don't allow yourself to get into the risky situation where you spend many months on something without knowing if it'll work.

I'm a huge fan of quickly launching and testing ideas. Start with a very small idea, and give yourself a hard cutoff of 3-5 weeks to make it work. If things work out with a particular idea, you can always commit to it for the long haul. If things don't work out, you have time to switch to new ideas and take more shots on goal, or go get a job while you still have plenty of money in the bank.

For example, Pieter Levels built and launched v1 of Nomad List in a month. It took me three weeks from idea to launch with Indie Hackers. Josh Pigford built and launched the mvp for Baremetrics in a week. The key is to start small.

I just did #2. It's been a little over 2 years and my savings are gone. I am starting to look for jobs again.

"Pursuing a couple ideas" is where I started. I would advise against it. Find a problem where people are DESPERATE to pay you money. That's a good starting point - but I just learned the hard way that isn't even enough. Spent the last 6 months working on the uber of airbnb cleaning because I knew some airbnb hosts that were literally begging for it. Built the app in a month, had several customers by month 2, grew to cleaning more than 20 properties on a weekly basis with 10 cleaners. It was a nightmare. We were growing but I would have to clean houses when cleaners didn't show or were late or the laundry on one clean took too long. Cleaning is a nasty, thankless job. Cleaning 30 houses in Indianapolis even with the efficiencies of the app was a nightmare. We eventually dropped the sourcing of the cleaners and our guarantee that if the clean was scheduled through the app it would be done, now we are just a software tool that automates scheduling and payment, and provides some other useful features. The market for just the software is saturated with a couple other tools and we are struggling to sell it.

Point in all this - it takes a LOT to build something successful. Most people have bad ideas that don't solve real problems. Many who do have a good idea don't execute, enter into bad partnerships, take the wrong advice from customers, etc.

Point in all this: Tread carefully down road #2.

This seems negative, but overall I still love building things and I will build a company in the future - I am sure of it. I just need to take a break from the 24/7 working, find some smart people, get some work experience, and try again another day.

Good luck David!

"My life goal is to build a successful business". Go after your life goal. We've just one life.
In the worst case scenario you'll have to find a job in 2 years, is it a big deal? :)
Other scenario, if you want to buy more time, you could do freelancing job 1 day by week (nothing too complicated I guess as a software developper).
For the ideas, focus on something people are ready to pay. It's often safer when It's not new.
A CRM dedicated to XX
A project management tool dedicated to XX

Good luck, and be confident and happy about your future choice !

Hey there, something similar happened to me too personally where I ended up leaving my regular day job. I have zero interest in finding another job right now and I've been wanting to start a company for the past 3 years, so all stars aligned and I thought now or never is the time to go for it. I'm also in a small city in the south and got some savings to keep me going for a while. I am about 2 months into this at the moment.

First thing I noticed I had to go back to living on student budget. I cannot and don't want to spend any extra money if I don't need to. So the thought of moving up to a big city would be totally out of question in my mind because that would probably suck up a lot of money. Really think hard about that option and where you would like to see yourself in 10 years.

As far as projects, I've been trying to get things going for a while. Starting small and fast is probably the best way to go. Don't waste too much time on an idea that may never take off. Learning how to indie-hack is another art form if you are coming from a corporate dev background (like I am). You have to own the whole process, not just the dev part. You also have to learn to promote and sell what you have made and to find your audience.

Another idea for you -- consider getting some part time job. I'm teaching at a university on the side where the pay/time requirement ratio is quite good. With little effort I can earn enough money to break-even financially and not having to worry about running out of savings (or even worse having to find a day job). Plus that environment in itself is good for networking and sanity. You want to maintain some social interaction even if you mainly end up working from home.

Do you consider your gf a co-founder? Having a co-founder is a definite must. My biggest mistake (so far) was not finding one earlier.

I'm on path #2 right now. It's a grind for sure, but like most other folks said here, if you are building a business that you care about and a problem that's worth solving, definitely go for it. If you're going to look back on this time and have any regrets about not doing it, then you should def go for it. Money can always be replaced, experiences can not.

That being said, I'm in NYC, and your savings would definitely go further elsewhere. Stay where you are and minimize your expenses as much as you can to give yourself time. Not having enough time is really the biggest roadblock you may run up against. With enough time dedicated, we all could solve a host of problems.

Good luck! And happy to help answer any NY questions ;)

If your life goal is your business I'd go for 2 or 3.
As others said, you can always find a job later.

If you have the time, I would probably freelance a bit to give you more runway and to complement your entrepreneurial journey. It can be lonely and having some financial safety net might feel good. Once you have a better idea of where you are heading you can quit that job.

BTW, I am in a similar boat. I use my parental leave to dip my feet into the entrepreneurial waters. I share my story and journey on YouTube. Maybe you want to follow along?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXFKQfOTwi4

For me, independently of your choice, you need to focus on what you want for your life. In my opinion (after a read your text), you are more inclined to say yes to the options #2 and #3, and for me, option #3 seems pretty OK.