I went through something quite similar twenty years ago. I had co-founded a software company starting in the back-end programming role and evolving into "Presid

I went through something quite similar twenty years ago. I had co-founded a software company starting in the back-end programming role and evolving into "President" and later "CTO" after we were funded. I put those in quotes because I had no clue at all what I was doing. A few years down the road we sold out for a bit under the preferences and I was out of a job. The past few years had not really qualified me to be anything other than an entrepreneur. My engineering skills had grown rusty. There was no way I would pass a development interview. After about nine months I was hired as a senior VP in a mid-sized public corp and spent almost a year there. I hated it. I came out of that place determined to get back to doing the sort of software engineering work I knew I was suited for and could make a decent living at. I sharpened my skills. I wrote some side projects. I focused on small startups and consultancies, and over a period of about five years rebuilt myself a career doing what I love. I probably won't ever do another startup at this point, but I consider myself fortunate to have found my niche.