Bootstrap your startup to beta while still at Yahoo. Sure you'll have to put up with not working on what you love 100% of the time but it'll be better than 0% a

Bootstrap your startup to beta while still at Yahoo. Sure you'll have to put up with not working on what you love 100% of the time but it'll be better than 0% and probably close to 100% seeing how you seem to like Yahoo o.k. I am in a situation very similar to yours - good employer, o.k. hours and an overdue startup. I am doing this right now. It's long days and busy weekends and try as I may, a couple of days a week I don't get any sleep. But there is both satisfaction and a reduction in risk in doing this for me. For me, it's not the financial risk that matters as much but I just wasn't sure I would be able to maintain my focus and enthusiasm doing just a startup - amongst other reasons because my cofounders are non-technical. On the other hand the fact that my cofounders have funded the startup, pay me to do this (on top of my salary at bigco) and handle all the boring non-technical tasks while still letting me be an equal part of strategy and fundraising - all these make my situation a bit different from yours.