One thing that's changed a lot in the past decade -- when I left my first startup, SigFig, in 2012 (after 7 years of slow, grinding failure -- company has since had a renaissance let by my cofounder, who stayed), it was really unclear what I was qualified to do next. As a founder, I had a lot of general skills but few specific or tangible ones - I'd spent a lot of time in sales, product management, marketing and generally doing the admin basics like taking out the trash, but I wouldn't really have considered myself qualified to run a sales team, lead marketing, or generally run any of the functions at a "real" company that I'd dabbled in as a founder.<p>I tried interviewing for jobs -- but from the perspective of employers, it was unclear what specific skills / experience I had - (most ppl would not have heard of the company I started, so it felt a lot like a 7-year gap on my resume). I was 32, but mostly was only able to interview for entry-level positions. I got very close to a job as a PM at Quora (thank you Marc Bodnick, @ccheever, Adam and Sandra)<p>We'd pitched 70 different VCs over the course of the co -- I emailed all of them to let them know I was leaving hte company, and asked to meet with them to get advice about my future plans. I only heard back from one person -- Brian Ascher at Venrock, who ultimately b/c an investor in my next co.<p>I ended up starting another company in part b/c it just didn't seem like there were many other good options.<p>This has changed a lot -- many cos, from growth-stage startups to stereotypical BigCos really want to hire former founders into positions that have meaningful scope and ownership and impact. At Rippling, we have some crazy ratios here -- around 40 ppl out of 350 are former founders, it's a candidate profile we actively seek out and view it as a badge of honor.