Putting everything on the line can focus you like never before. But if you fail, you may never get a chance to do another startup with a bankruptcy on your rec

Putting everything on the line can focus you like never before. But if you fail, you may never get a chance to do another startup with a bankruptcy on your record and having to get an employee job for a decade. Put up the money for the startup that is the extra from what you need to get by. Throw in your 401k and every penny you own as well as money you don't have, and you are risking living in the house of pain for 20 years trying to service it with an employee job as a desparate man. Have a startup "complete failure" plan because odds are you will have to use it.