Video summary

I Quit My $250K Tech Job — Now I Make $33K Selling Matcha

Main summary

Key takeaways

Lifestyle

Overview

Michelle Young explains how she left a ~$250K/year software engineering career in New York (around 2022–2023) to open a matcha café in NYC. She now earns about $33K/year, saying she’s much happier. Her decision is driven less by money over time and more by purpose, hands-on work, and community impact. She also shares key matcha-making technique advice.

Lifestyle / Career Shift

  • Transitioned from a high-paying tech job to building a physical small business: a matcha café in NYC.
  • Kept expenses lean after moving from a private studio to a roommate setup:
    • Rent: $1,750
    • Food: $258
    • Transportation: $112
    • Utilities: $38
    • Subscriptions/memberships: $25
    • Phone: $15
    • Other: $94
  • Worked long hours during the café’s opening phase, then gradually moved toward a more sustainable routine:
    • Typical day: mostly admin work
    • On many weeks, staff run the store with less direct supervision
    • She works bar mainly on Saturdays and 1–3 other days per week
    • Tries to take one full day of rest (Sundays)

Health / Daily Routines (Work-Life Balance)

  • Early stage routine while preparing/opening:
    • Worked approximately 4:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. before her software engineering day meetings
  • Later, during café/bar shifts:
    • Worked long stretches (often 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.) without breaks because she had to whisk every drink
  • Keeps the work meaningful through daily interaction:
    • Focus shifts from “how much money” to what impact she creates each day

Matcha-Making Technique (Key Advice)

Matcha quality depends on small details, including:

  • Ratio of matcha powder to water
  • Whisking technique (how you whisk the matcha)

Practical lesson from early operations:

For the first ~2 months, she only trusted herself to whisk drinks, with low tolerance for error while training and launching.

Travel / Life Highlights and Motivation

After receiving her first software engineering offer (~$160K), she describes a period of newfound freedom:

  • Ability to travel “anywhere, anytime”
  • Ability to buy almost anything she wanted

Over time, she felt her work became “fake work,” which pushed her to find a more physical, purpose-driven career.

Business Journey and Opening Challenges

  • Saved $200,000 in cash to open the café.
  • Faced major hurdles before opening:
    • Difficulty signing leases for early locations (landlords didn’t want to trust a new small business)
    • Contractor issues (unfinished counters; contractor accountability problems)
    • Flooding just before an opening event (upstairs/basement flooded; she mopped while still moving forward)

Community support at opening:

  • Friends helped after she kept the idea private for 4–5 months
  • Customers lined up down the block—some waited about two hours in summer heat

Notable Locations / Products / People

  • Locations:
    • New York City (Manhattan)
    • Childhood area near Chinatown, San Francisco
  • Business/product: A matcha café selling matcha drinks using:
    • Matcha powder
    • House sugar syrup
  • Speaker: Michelle Young (29 years old)

Original video