Increase TC first or create a startup?

Right now my job is a joke, I work maybe 3 hours a week and maybe a few hours of meetings, it’s remote too. Lots of free time. Problem is that it’s hardly engineering, more like consulting internal teams on platform choices and creating app proof of concept hello worlds accompanied by tech docs. I’ve done once off technical projects in the past in this role but they were small and didn’t really have any technical standards. Many of the people who work here have never touched GitHub… This is my 2nd job out of college, the first one had a coding bootcamp where I learned basic javascript development. Over a year ago I tried the leetcode game, did like 120 problems got like 12 phone screens, passed about 5 but I backed out of most due to company types and my lack of deep specialty understanding so knew I’d fail some rounds (Facebook machine learning, TikTok SRE, and some fund bloated startups). I had one on-site where the leetcode was ok but I got butchered on system design despite some light SD studying. No offers and all the back to back screens became overwhelming and figured I have insane domain, leetcode, and system design gaps I need to bridge before I interview… After this I thought of a very unique startup idea, something that has been tried and very successful in Japan. Problem is that it’s a marketplace startup, and would require both supply/demand. Without giving up the actual idea, think of something as crazy as the company CuddleComfort. For last half a year I’ve been developing it with React/Node.js/MySQL. It has authentication and can CRUD but requires payment system similar to Airbnb for which id probably use Stripe. Still need messaging (both SFTP relay stuff and instant between ‘sellers’ ‘buyers’), ID verification, proper styling, admin dashboard, and the list goes on. The project is massive and I don’t have good coding standards. I’m quite certain the system I’m building won’t scale well, won’t look up to par with modern companies, won’t be properly secure, and not sure how I’d drive demand to this marketplace except through $$ into TikTok/FB ads and Reddit/forum spamming. I have no co founders and nobody technical to ask, in a pretty rural place right now. My wife is graduating medical school soon (in a year) and we want to move to California for our silly lifestyle dreams. I’m at crossroads now, do I continue building this very unique marketplace with my extremely limited engineering exposure and hope funding/demand will carry me to glory or do I pause on this dream to try leetcode and fancy swe jobs again in hopes of developing better skills and good connections for this startup? TLDR: 1. Currently have 3 hrs of work a week job consulting internal teams and making hello world proof of concepts. No CS degree. Last job had coding bootcamp that’s all I know about coding pretty much. 2. Tried leetcode/swe grind and failed, but probably didn’t do as many interviews as some have here 3. Thought of very unique startup marketplace idea that requires supply/demand, have been slowly coding it for 6 months, quite slow progress. Worried about bad software design decisions, lack of network, and company understanding will cause me to waste my time and brutally fail. Also worried I’m burying away a gold mine idea if I stop now 4. Wife graduating medical school in year and we want to move to California Should I pause startup grind to get better swe job to learn swe field better and get right connections to make startup dream reality at later point in life or take advantage of my 3 hr work week job right now to grind and fill in the technical gaps in solitude and release some sort of startup alone? TC: 122K YOE: 3.5