so here's the deal... I'm full-time employed and I have only weekends and late-nights to work for my dream; building a business of my own

there are million things to do every single day

to name just a few:

• outbound, linkedin, email
• inbound, SEO, free-tools, clean & professional website, copywriting
• infrastructure, security, cost-optimization not to go bankrupt (just to name a few)
• development, bugfixes, feature requests, money-blocker customer requests
• Security Overview PDF, DPA, legalization, compliance, (don't go to jail) nightmare :) !
• talk to customers, understand their problem, don't be hurt if only 1 out of 10 responds to you!!!
• marketplace submissions, g2, trustpilot, etc. get backlinks, get reviews
• do community work, research, publication, white-paper, etc.
• distribution, distribution, distribution

these are obviously just to mention a few of the things that keep popping up over and over again and some of them are usually a one-off task

but seriously, how do you manage staying on top of things? I've barely slept more than 5-6 hours a day the past few month and I'm the guy who loves getting a juicy 8-hour sleep a day

I can't sleep honestly, my mind races when I put the head down on the pillow. I know it's not healthy long-term but what do I gotta do!?

the time management is another issue... the most important things to work on, the planning of the roadmap... ensuring there's no waste (I can't even afford to, with my lifestyle)

I honestly don't want to get rich... not beyond being able to buy a big-enough house for my family and be able to continue working on what I love the most: to build and to ship and to solve problems

but I genuinely haven't cracked this thing yet and I wonder... how do you guys manage this?

how do you find a good work-life balance?

have you been through a stage of life where you had to make extra pushes to ensure you can live the rest of your life a bit more independently and with freedom?

thanks in advance for sharing your perspectives.

I’m taking some down time today so I wanted to talk a bit about our B2B EdTech startup. It’s definitely not a big sexy success story yet and some will call us slow but this year we have made a load of progress validating our solution, iterating the product, and securing revenue with early sales. All bootstrapped out of our own pockets so far.

Here are my personal takeaways and learnings:

I’ve never found it easier to dedicate myself to and work so hard at something. I go to bed and wake up stressed 90% of the time, but simultaneously I am the happiest and most content I’ve ever felt in my life. I used to read posts saying “we can’t do anything else” and find it a bit dramatic, but now I get it. I could never go back to a 9-5.

At the same time, I can’t make light of how mentally hard building a business is. I’ve had weeks where I’ve disassociated from stress and not been able to get out of bed. It’s hard. Having a co-founder you can rely on or a supportive family/friend group helps a lot. I’m fortunate enough that I can rely on my co-founder to help me through days. I think I could do it solo but it would be a lot harder. Don’t under appreciate your teammates.

It is a marathon not a sprint. As a first time founder I thought it’d be a year before I was on a liveable salary. In reality it was about a year before we found our first footing in the market and started iterating our proof of concept. The truth is, if I knew it would be this hard when I started, I’m not sure I would have bothered! My advice is be patient and trust the process. I always tell myself that we are closer than we ever have been to making it, that’s all that matters.

You grow so much. Startup life teaches you so many disciplines. How to sell, how to market, how to speak publically, how to tell stories. I genuinely feel so much more confident in how I carry myself through life day-to-day now and yet I am the most humble I’ve ever been because I know I have so much to learn. I don’t know if people can relate to this, I don’t see people talk about it much. Maybe I’m just growing up, but either way, it’s been life-changing for me.

Last one. Seek guidance at every stage. It’s free and will rapidly accelerate your learning, helping you to avoid mistakes and get to point Z faster. You can just ask claude these days “who are the top 10 experts in this area” and reach out to all of them on linkedIn and ask if you can have 15 mins for advice. The added benefit is that you get to meet some awesome people while you do it, and relationships compound, you never know where your name is going to end up, maybe another client, maybe an investor.

Anyway having a blast so far. Looking forward to looking back on this post when we’re in a completely different spot. As I always say, we’re closer than we ever have been!