Leaving Corporate to Build Your Own Business: Building Sourmilk with Elan Halpern & Kiki Couchman

In this episode, I sit down with best friends, co-founders, and first-time entrepreneurs Elan Halpern and Kiki Couchman, who traded high-achieving careers in tech and private equity to start a probiotic yogurt company from scratch — without burning it all down overnight.

They talk candidly about the slow build of misalignment, how they reframed leaving “successful” jobs without guilt, and the three key pillars they used to figure out what was next (Elan’s 3 Ps: passion, product, pay). We unpack what it means to make a shift on your own timeline, how your career can shape your identity (without permission), and why being “obsessed” with your work actually matters.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in a role that everyone else admires, or wondered whether a side idea could be something more — this episode will meet you where you are.

In This Episode, We Cover:

🎯 The signs of career misalignment 

🧠 The mindset shifts that made leaving corporate jobs possible

🧪 The “experiments” they ran to build conviction before quitting

💼 How your job can silently shape your identity over time

🛠️ Elan’s 3 Ps framework for deciding what to do next

🚪 How to exit the “first job” without throwing away everything you’ve built

👯‍♀️ The power of building in public and treating your community like a co-founder

💬 The uncomfortable part of starting over (and how to speak about it confidently)

🔗 Links & Resources:

Follow Elan & Kiki’s journey on Instagram: @eatbeny 

Book recommendation: Be Ready When Luck Happens by Ina Garten

Want the framework Elan used? Listen out for the 3 Ps: Passion, Product, Pay