Being a founder means

the reality of being a founder the world doesn't show and tell you

I have been fortunate to learn about some of the most ambitious founders the world has ever seen. I have always tried to learn from their early days — things that have built them, things that have made them exceptional in this world. I’m still learning and pretty sure will continue to do throughout my life.

Reading about their journey and building our startup, I have been able to take note of some similar patterns. Patterns in day-to-day operation and what it takes to be a founder.

There are celebrations, parties, warm wishes, and support when there is good news but it’s only a founder knows what they go through on a daily basis when you are expected to deliver irrespective of good or bad times you are having.

This essay by Ryan Hoover (Founder, Product Hunt) rightly mentioned it all:

---

Welcome to the 7th Edition of TheHustleBook. Thank you all for subscribing to my newsletter. As always, a lot of stories, pictures, and behind-the-scenes to share with you all my dear friends

Today's edition is going to be about behind the scenes of being a founder. I was having coffee at MDP Coffee, HSR and it was raining heavily outside and I was thinking about the different mental block I was having while juggling between things. This is when I thought of writing it all down.

It will be a bit long, but please bear with me, it will be all worth it.

So, here are some of these unexpressed feelings I have collected over the last 2 years on what it means to be a founder:

A. You have to show up every single day — cliche but consistency and persistence are key ingredients for success as a founder. Showing up every single day, even when the going gets tough, is essential for moving the needle and making progress. You cannot just make any excuses.

B. You have to follow up — you have to keep following up with the team, community members, investors, customers, and prospects — shamelessly, with zero ego, consistently, politely, and with the utmost respect.

Being a founder you are the sole responsible person for both getting things done and not getting things done. You will be questioned, you will be summoned, you will be pointed upon and so much more. Hence it’s always good to “follow up” for the love of your startup and the people you care about.

C. You have to upgrade — you will have to upgrade yourself every single day without any execuses. Being a leader you constantly need to learn and equip yourself with insight, and topics relevant to your field. The things you know and what you can do with is an underrated unfair advantage you have as a founder.

D. You have to focus, focus and focus — this is one of my favorite ones. The world is constantly evolving, there are a lot happening, it will be so compelling to get distracted, be lure away by the happenings around you but ARE YOU FOCUSED on your mission? What is the price you are paying for it?

E. You have to be okay with being misunderstood — You have to accept the fact that, very very very few people in this world will get what you are going through on a daily basis. Numbers are declining, team is demotivated, money problems, runway getting shorter — a series of events keep happening and you will have to be OKAY and KEEP GOING.

F. You have to be okay with all the sacrifices - you need to be okay with all the sacrifices you have to make that come because of money - because you have to ensure the salary of your team, stipend for your intern, buy that tool, pay for that subscription, legal compliances and lot more nuances that come along during those early days.

You will have to live frugally for years and years to save that extra money - deep down it’s only you who will know the importance of it and be making peace with it.

G. You have to accept being looked down upon - You have to accept being looked down upon as a founder, you will be an underdog, people will underestimate you, and sometimes might not take you seriously, especially when you have no credibility or pedigree. It’s sad how few of these things are not in your control — you cannot go back in time and change the past.

But it’s only inside in your mind, it’s you who still believes in that idea, that problem that needs to be solved, that missing piece in the puzzle, and with full conviction, you stay focused, keep working hard, and spread your wins with the team and the community.

H. You have to give 100% everyday - Irrespective of how you feel, or what you might be going through — you have to go all in every single day. There are times when you doubt yourself and unsure of the decision but that’s on you to take care of.

Imagine being a first-time founder, you are constantly learning, executing, measuring, and improvising. NGL, it takes a lot of dedication, determination, and perseverance to keep going when things get tough.

You are managing a team, you are managing yourself, you are course-correcting the directions you are going — mind you? you cannot be wrong there since you are already on limited resources and you cannot make mistakes.

I. You have to take care of your physical health - It’s quite unfair how discussions on physical health are never a mainstream topic. Only when we are sick, we realize the importance of a healthy body.

When you're healthy and fit, you have more energy and focus to devote to your startup and day-to-day operations. Plus, it helps to set a good example for your team and create a culture of health and well-being.

I remember once Michael Siebel Tweeted about this, being a founder you have just three things to take care of — Product, Customer, and Health. Everything else is a distraction for you as a founder. What you focus on is what you improve. And these three are like going back to basics when things go wrong.

J. You have to take care of your mental health — Most of us as a founder live in denial regarding the importance of mental health. But similar to our physical health, mental health is equally important. It directly impacts our decision-making, productivity and hence everything you do for the day.

Found this figure from the same essay by Ryan Hoover, it was quite disturbing.

Startups are built on sacrifices the world might never know about but you have to keep going and show up. You are constantly in charge of a challenging environment and ever-growing demand. Most of the young first-time founders reading this can highly relate to this.

I feel “being happy” is an underrated productivity hack for any creator or founder out there. If you are a founder or a creator reading this, what do you do to make yourself happy? how do you optimize for happiness? let me know in the comments.

K. You have to be fine with missing out — that new movie launch, gadget launch, latest album, latest trends in the talk - unless that comes into your field of work, you have just to be okay with missing out on them. Sometimes you will be uncool and that’s fine until and unless you make peace with the fact that you have to miss out on few things in life.

L. You will have to right everytime — the delta of startup failure is just so high that you have very little chance to be wrong, you cannot just afford it. This is because they are seen as the visionaries and leaders of their companies. However, it is important to remember that everyone makes mistakes. It is impossible to be right all the time.

I feel, the catch here is to learn from your mistakes and to be willing to admit when you are wrong. It set the write example in the team and culture.

M. You will have to know everything — you have to be curious and constantly learning as a founder. You are signing up to be a learning machine and the trickiest part about it is you can’t trick it, there are no shortcuts, you cannot pretend this drill, you have to put in real effort in filling yourself everyday.

Founders are expected to have a broad range of knowledge in order to be successful. They need to understand their product or service, their target market, their customer behavior, market trends, the industry, the competitors, and the business world as a whole. Personally, sometimes, it seems unfair to me. The pressure is high at times and you cannot just make random decisions, you need to have sound knowledge about it. This is because when things go south, you are in the best position to explain what went wrong and rework from there.

N. You will have to meet the expectations — as a founder, you will have to meet the expectations of your community, customers, team members, investors, and other stakeholders. This can be a lot of pressure, but it is also important to remember that these expectations are there because people believe in you and your startup.

First of all, it’s very hard to bring people together for a cause and start a movement out of it. The accessibility to something new has become so easy and convenient that it’s definitely really hard to make your people committed to one thing — atleast for a long period of time.

---

I’m sure there are countless other things that I’m unable to put here right at this moment.

Being in the startup ecosystem actively for more than half a decade now, I have come to realize that founders all around the world are underrated, they are silently fighting battles we have no idea about.

I will always have respect for founders, irrespective of whether they make big or fail in their pursuits. The decision to become a founder, going against all the odds, and building things from scratch is itself very very hard. I have always tried to build this culture of respect and dignity inside Team Fueler “Respect every founder”. This reminds me of this tweet by Sairam Krishnan

This is something you will only understand when you yourself become a founder. You are constantly thinking about your startup, living and breathing it everyday because you have no other option but to decrease the odds of its failure.

We might all read these funding, acquisition, merger, and IPO stories but the majority of the time we are unaware of the fact that go behind - about what it takes to build a startup and make it successful - those late nights, those sacrifices, those rejections, those ghosting, and those silent battles inside your mind.

Being a founder myself, I get into the loop of self-introspection if I’m working hard enough everyday, if I’m challenging myself enough. Like every other founder, I doubt my actions and decisions if they are getting better everyday.

I'm hard on myself at times but again I remind myself of the following:
- how many folks do you know who have built startups?
- how many startups did you work on?
- how many people did you know when you started?
- how many hours did you put into the right thing?
- how many mentors did you have?

Even though it’s hard to stop being hard on yourself, you have to carry yourself in the tough times — eventually, it’s your mind that needs to be super convinced.

Thanks for reading, and thanks a lot for your presence and contributions in Fueler Community. As always, Team Fueler is grateful to you for your love and support :)

You can always help us by referring your friends to Fueler to help them create their career portfolios. Everyone deserves to land opportunities by showing what they are good at — their Proof of Work

Until next time, take care.

Your friend,
Riten

p.s if you are a founder reading this, I wish you nothing but the best for you.