All in a day’s work: Balancing a full-time job while building a business

Nikki Yam’s days began before sunrise.

By 6:30am, she was at a charter school in Queens where she worked as a network assessment coordinator.

When the school bell rang, Yam headed across Brooklyn to oversee her hot dog restaurant Glizzy’s NYC. She shifted from curriculum coaching and data instruction to meeting with contractors, choosing fixtures, creating signage, and pitching investors.

“When we were first opening, my days were anywhere from 5am to 1am,” Yam said.

Startup culture can often glorify founders who quit their jobs and go all in. But for many entrepreneurs, holding onto a steady paycheck isn’t a sign of hesitation—it’s a strategic decision that provides the financial stability to test ideas, bootstrap growth, and make calculated risks without the pressure of immediately turning a profit.

A survey of more than 1,300 business owners from payroll company Gusto found that 44% of new US businesses started in 2023 began as side hustles.

Across interviews, Founder Brew spoke with four founders who built companies while working full time. Their day jobs spanned education, corporate sales, product management, and Big Tech, but they shared a common lesson: keeping their careers gave them the runway to build businesses on their own terms.

Runway before revenue

When Gene Caballero started GreenPal, a lawn care marketplace, he was balancing the company with a full-time sales job at Dell. The paycheck helped cover his mortgage and car payment while he built the company on nights and weekends.

“I didn’t really have an option,” Caballero said. “You had a house, you had a car payment. There’s just no other way to pay those other than to keep working.”

But the paycheck only carried him so far.

“Nobody was giving money to startups like ours…It wasn’t cool, it wasn’t sexy. It wasn’t something that really people cared about,” said Cabellero.

When outside investors showed little interest in a lawn care marketplace, Caballero and his co-founders had to fund the company themselves. He invested roughly $50,000 of his own money and eventually sold his house to keep GreenPal moving.

For Yam, the paycheck served a different purpose: It gave her a financial cushion after she and her partner had poured their savings into Glizzy’s.

“I used a lot of my savings to put into Glizzy’s…It was like, ‘Hey, no more savings. Now what are you going to do?’ Having that paycheck helped me afford my lifestyle still…my car, my bills, my phone, my rent,” Yam told Founder Brew.

When the 9-to-5 becomes the classroom

MiChaela Barker had already formed an LLC for Matcha Scrubs—a line of scrub caps designed for healthcare professionals with textured hair—when she met 1-800-Flowers founder and chair Jim McCann and was hired to work directly with him as manager of strategic projects.

“I wanted a job that would still allow me to do my startup and wouldn’t have some noncompete,” Barker said.

The role became an education in entrepreneurship. Barker watched how a larger consumer company handled licensing, supply chain disruptions, and tariffs—lessons she later applied to Matcha Scrubs.

“I’m able to learn a lot...because I see the company doing it,” she said. “Based off of what I learn, I’m able to apply that to Matcha without taking the personal risk.”

A price to pay

Sandeep Prakash, co-founder of Parkwell, a short-term rental parking platform, said the financial cushion from his full-time job as a product manager in the technology industry allowed him to take a more measured approach to building the company.

“Having a stable income will help you make those trade-offs—or risk appetite—better or higher because you have that cushion to fall back on in case something doesn’t work out,” Prakash said.

Building Parkwell alongside his full-time job also meant learning to fiercely protect his time.

“I became more comfortable saying no…because time was the biggest commodity that needed to be protected,” Prakash said.

Caballero said the sacrifices went beyond long hours.

“That was my 30s,” he said. “When people were building families and buying homes with their partners and having kids, I was in an office.”

For Barker, the trade-off was opportunity.

“I can’t go to every single event or every single founder dinner. I can’t go to every networking opportunity,” Barker said.

From moonlighting to main focus

Barker and Prakash are still balancing their full-time employee roles with their entrepreneurial ventures. Yam still owns Glizzy’s NYC while advancing her career in the educational space—she’s now director of schools at Legacy College Preparatory Charter School.

But, after seven years of building GreenPal while working full time, Caballero moved into a less demanding role at Dell before leaving to focus on GreenPal full time.

“I always told myself that if GreenPal got to the point where it needed more time than I was able to give it, that’s when I would have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with myself.”

According to GreenPal, the platform has hit over 1 million users and has helped 85,000 lawn care professionals grow their business.

Caballero doesn’t think other founders should rush the leap.

“You don’t have to quit your job unless you just absolutely hate it or you just don’t need the money.”