You can go start-up but you can also go start-down. When you are very young you weight failure with a low number, when you are over 40 and have a family to support failure is a big factor. So think in this equation:
What-to-do = maximize w1p(failure)+w2p(safety)+w2*p(success), where wi are personal and family factors, and p are probabilities.
Is your experience something that a start-up need? or is experience only something to change for the future?
A good programmer can code with automatic testing in his head, so in his view it doesn't need testing. But this is a personal supposition.