Founder Rewind

I recently caught up with a friend who’d founded a company. He was at a low point: overwhelmed, sleep deprived, stressed… I listened, nodded, and said, “I remember those days.” And I do remember them. It took years before my startup <a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Anchor</a> began to gain real traction. There were sleepless nights and drastic pivots, crashed servers and bad bugs. Most founders I speak to agree that the startup journey is generally discouraging, overrun with <a href="https://www.zaxis.page/p/push-pull-building-products" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">unsolvable challenges</a> and <a href="https://www.zaxis.page/p/rough-drafts" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">many many mistakes</a>. “But there’s good stuff too, right?” my friend asked. I assured him there was. I said that the high points, while few and far between, would be worth it. I added that the low points, while no fun in the moment, are all things that make you smarter down the road. I explained that most of his energy and concern was probably expended on <a href="https://medium.com/@NirZicherman/the-low-pass-ceo-dca6c59a25fe" rel="noopener">things that wouldn’t matter</a> in the long run. I told him that when I was on the journey, I too had these periods of doubt. He asked, “What would you have done differently?” And rather than giving him just my answer — which might have been unique to my experience, not applicable to his — I decided to do something different and write this article. I posed a question to twenty-one other founders, across many different industries from media to finance, from SaaS to urban farming. The question I asked them was this: If you could go back in time and give your younger self some advice just as you were starting your founder journey, what would you say? <a href="https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/founder-rewind-d9dcebcf6ea4">Website</a>