These Two Founders Say This Is The Right Time To Quit Your Job To Build A Startup

Samir Goel and Wemimo Abbey have come together to found Esusu, a financial tech platform empowering immigrant communities to save better, manage their cash flow, and build credit through a digitized rotational savings system. The two cofounders have raised $250,000, with Sinai Ventures as the lead investor. The two cofounders left prestigious jobs at LinkedIn and PricewaterhouseCoopers, respectively, to build Esusu on a full-time basis. Goel, 24, graduated from New York University in 2016. Abbey, 26, holds a Bachelor’s in Business Management from the University of Minnesota, and a Master’s in Public Administration from NYU.

Esusu cofounders Wemimo Abbey (left) and Samir Goel (right).

Frederick Daso: When is it time for an entrepreneur to leave their full-time job and pursue their startup?

Samir Goel: That’s an excellent question. I worked at LinkedIn for about three years, and for two of those years, I was also working on Esusu with Abbey. Today, there’s kind of this myth that to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to drop everything, take a million risks and start working on your venture. My sort of belief around that is most people don’t have the privilege or opportunity to do that. A smarter approach is to work on what you’re building on the side and validate your idea.