I Quit My $250K Tech Job. Now I Make $33K Selling Matcha
Michelle Young, 29, left a $250K software engineering career to open Watcha House, a matcha café in New York City, now earning $33K annually. Despite the dramatic pay cut, she reports significantly greater happiness and sense of purpose from the physical, community-oriented work. The transition required $200K in savings, personal sacrifices like taking on a roommate, and overcoming major obstacles including contractor disputes and flooding.
Summary
Michelle Young grew up in San Francisco in a low-income household with a single immigrant mother, sharing a bed with her mom through her teenage years. Financial security was the defining goal of her childhood, leading her and her brothers to pursue high-earning careers. Following her oldest brother's advice, she studied applied math and became a software engineer, receiving her first offer of $160,000 — an amount that felt transformative given her background.
Over time, Michelle began to feel disconnected from her software engineering work, describing it as 'fake work' despite a good company culture and a salary that eventually reached $250,000. Around 2022–2023, she recognized she needed a complete career change, and by 2024, she identified a gap in New York City's matcha café market after frequenting tea spots with friends and finding none met her standards — even compared to the matcha she made at home.
To prepare, Michelle saved $200,000 in cash, worked at Starbucks during early morning hours (4:30–10:00 a.m.) before her tech job meetings to learn café operations, and spent months planning in secret before telling anyone. The path to opening Watcha House was filled with setbacks: two landlords rejected her lease applications, contractors left counters unfinished and refused accountability, and the basement and upstairs flooded the night before the soft opening.
Despite these challenges, Michelle's friends rallied around her, volunteering help and lining up for two hours in summer heat on opening day. In the early weeks, she personally whisked every drink and worked 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. without breaks. Now, her staff can run the shop independently most days, and she focuses primarily on administrative work, working on bar a few days a week including Saturdays, with Sundays reserved for rest.
Her current monthly expenses total approximately $2,292, covering rent ($1,750 with a roommate), food ($258), transportation ($112), and other essentials — a deliberate downscaling from her previous solo studio apartment. She frames these sacrifices as necessary and conscious trade-offs. Michelle concludes that while she worked fewer than 40 hours a week in tech, she now works virtually all waking hours — but feels a daily sense of meaning, purpose, and community impact that her high-paying career never provided.
Key Insights
- Michelle describes her software engineering work as 'fake work,' saying the dissatisfaction stemmed not from her workplace or team culture — which she considered decent — but from a fundamental sense that the work wasn't producing anything meaningful in the world.
- Michelle saved $200,000 in cash before launching Watcha House and notes this is actually a small amount for opening a café in New York City, where startup costs are typically much higher — reflecting just how capital-intensive NYC food businesses are.
- To learn café operations while still employed in tech, Michelle worked at Starbucks from 4:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. before her software engineering meetings, framing it as a personal training mission she had set for herself rather than a financial necessity.
- In the first two months after opening, Michelle trusted only herself to whisk every drink, working bar from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. without breaks — a direct reflection of her belief that small details like water ratios and whisking technique were critical to the café's success.
- Michelle argues that when her life prioritized work-life balance and financial freedom in tech, she felt she wasn't producing anything for the world or making an impact — and that now, with less money but more direct daily engagement with customers and community, she experiences far greater meaning and purpose.
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] I went from making $250,000 a year to now expecting around $33,000 this year and I'm so much happier now than I was before. >> Damn, this is good. >> How you take the matcha matters. The ratios of the matcha powder to water matters. How you whisk the matcha matters. I knew that every little thing would matter for the success of Watcha House. There was like very little room for error. So, the first two months I [0:31] only trusted myself to whisk every drink. My entire life is work now and I don't regret it. My name is Michelle Young. I'm 29 years old and I earn about $33,000 a year living in New York City.…
Full transcript available for MurmurCast members
Sign Up to AccessMore from CNBC Make It
I scaled back my six-figure career to run a local bookstore with my husband — here's why
A couple shares their experience transitioning from a six-figure career to running a local bookstore together, emphasizing that their reduced income and lifestyle change has brought greater happiness and fulfillment despite financial uncertainty. They reflect on how overcoming initial fear about the transition has made the experience exciting rather than scary.
'Hard work will speak for itself' is a lie, says Stanford career expert
Stanford career expert Jeffrey Pfeffer argues that the belief that hard work alone leads to success is false. Instead, how you present yourself and your visibility to leadership matters as much as or more than the actual work you do, making relationship-building with your boss essential for career advancement.
Here's why Jim Cramer named his dog 'Nvidia'
Jim Cramer explains how he renamed his dog Nvidia in 2017 to promote the stock, which he calls empirically the greatest stock of all time. He claims this marketing stunt helped create numerous millionaires, with a $10,000 investment turning into $454,000.
Are We 'Maxxing' Too Much?
The transcript explores the 'maxing' trend—optimizing every aspect of life from sleep to fiber intake—examining why it has become popular amid global uncertainty and how brands capitalize on this behavior. Experts warn that while self-improvement is valuable, approaching maxing with obsessive rigidity can be counterproductive, and individuals should prioritize sustainability and psychological flexibility.
Are you making this mistake on dating apps?
A psychologist identifies the primary mistake people make on dating apps: entering without clarity on what they actually want. Without internal criteria, users react superficially to appearance and pursue matches based on who shows interest, rather than making deliberate choices aligned with their actual goals.