The truth

While being a founder “sounds” really cool, the truth is largely different. A lot of folks congratulate you for taking the risky step, a lot of them look at you as a role model and seek out a path, a lot of them expect you to win big.

But, being a solo founder of a company is by no means an easy journey. This path is NOT to be treaded unless you are well prepared on a lot of things. Unless you have done the journey yourself, here are the things what you will NOT see when speaking to a founder.

Pending Invoices

Whether its India or abroad, getting the invoices paid on time is one of the biggest challenge as a founder. Every client expects high quality work but when it comes to clearing invoices, there is always a personal obligation, higher priorities, sometimes a creative way to put off the hard work. If you are a client and you are reading this, pls don’t be like this.

As a founder, at this point its “expected” to be professional, understand the situation, show empathy and be “patient” for months. What makes it worse is that I never “break the bridges”. like rubbing salt to the wound.

All this happens while expenses piling on, bank balance diminishes and runway vanishes. You go through all this while breaking one more “FD” so that the team salaries are NEVER delayed even by a minute even if that means you do not get salary. Fun fact, Its been months since I’ve taken a salary. Its not that I don’t need it but my priority is always team first.

Very few clients pay on time even after work in done!

No Time Off

Ask a founder, when was the last time they took a weekend off or planned for a long weekend, they will probably need to think hard to come up with something and most of times its years back. There is no weekends nor holidays as a founder. Heck, there is nothing called “Log Off” at least for me.

The only joy about long weekends is when I help plan my team mates plan a good long weekend. Making sure they make the most of it while . Did I ever had a manager or a leader who did such planning for me? No!

And along with the long weekend, the worry also starts. When everyone is on a break, if something goes wrong, how can I address it all by myself? How can I make sure I do not disturb my team?

And how can I forget Monday’s? Monday’s are the worse. While everyone is snoozing the alarm again, you need to start preparing to be the “RESERVED“ backup for anyone taking a day off.

You are the first one to come to office and the last to checkout after turning off all the lights/fans and hoping nothing will happen to the assets you have invested in.

Escalations

When things go wrong, as a founder I take the bullets first. What is super interesting is who is firing. Sometimes it could be the client or sometimes its your own team. The hardest part is to be patient, swallow your pride, listen carefully, understand the problem and act so that its all fine immediately.

As a human, I too fee like venting back but end up resisting that urge. I want to also escalate but to whom? Bottom line is that I cannot afford a single “BAD” day. The things you sign up for when you start the founder journey. Painful is the word. The final cherry on the top is keep the smile on and be positive.

Being a leader is to be the sponge that absorbs all of this and still try and shine brighter.

Say Good bye to Health & Sleep

To start with, the to do list really never ends. It keep growing. The bigger the todo list, the larger the stress, and the worse the sleep is. No wonder a lot of CEOs/Founders (58.97%) are at high cardiac risk. The only thing you can truly save me is Coffee. Fun Fact: I drink at least 500ML of coffee.

While sleep is one thing, the next one is lunch. Sometimes at 230, sometimes at 4. Why ? Sometimes there is call after another one, a visitor or a client at office was scheduled and the time allotted for lunch was robbed by something “urgent“.

The only daily exercise is the stairs you take. By the time you crash, either your back hurts (carrying two laptops is not easy ) or your head is aching badly or your are completely drained out of energy.

Welcome to founder’s life!

Biggest Risk Taker

For me, this is the number one thing Esp. true if there is no VC to back up and shower dollars. Being a solo founder, I invest money that was hard earned and keep doing it much before the product earns a Rupee and well with products, there is no guarantee if the product will “work”.

Speaking of risks, everyday is a surprise, I just don’t know what will break. Sometimes its the adapter, sometimes its the keyboard, sometimes its the Blue screen of death!

Sometimes its the risk of choosing to working with a wrong client, sometimes its a wrong hire, sometimes its the tech we run behind. Each of these risks are driven by decisions no one else but the founder only will take.

Every single day you get up, wishing the day would be less chaotic.

Single point of contact

Monitor is not working, lemme see. Internet is down, lemme see. There is a bug, lemme see. React, Reply, and repeat for anything and everything that is “bad”. Every problem is your problem.

The worse part is, these things come when you are working deep on a plan, focusing on solving a problem, figuring out a better strategy. And then “something” happens and I need to chuck all of that “important stuff“ that only I can work on and end up owning the problem/mistake and start working towards a solution right away!

Wearing multiple hats

I knew this one was going to be tough but never was a 100% prepared. I am looking at you - Administrative stuff!

Context switching is insanely high when it comes to a solo founder managing multiple things. Once you are working on a document, the next minute, then you get an ping that the dev server is broken, someone right then calls for GST filing, you need to review design, while someone asks you for content for social media and one of your client will be at office soon so you need to plan on making them comfortable. And just like that, it will be 5PM.

Well, I am not even Exaggerating and this is the usual routine. Still really not in a position yet to delegate things to the team who are still relatively young in the experience.

Every single day I get a feeling that I did not move the needle much and that guilty has no end. Sometimes I wonder if CEO really means Chief Executive Office or Constantly Exhausted Officer or Cursed with Endless Ownership.

Caring like no one

This is something that almost no one realizes and recognizes. As a founder, you care a lot about your team, more than the client realizes and more often than not, you care a lot more than your bank balance indicates.

Whether its related to Work Quality, Coffee, Food, medicines, bugs, documentation, process, hardware, software, mental health, safety and well being of the team, decisions and the impact, people whom you let into the team, reputation of the team, the culture and the values, every founder who is building a rock solid team will be looking at all these things every single minute.

This is not an obligation just cos I am building a team, I do this on purpose. Life is short, spend with people whom you care and love.

Dealing with set backs

Work with a new client, push a lot and ensure everything is fine, get a sign off and then later to be told, this is not what we expected. What a set back. You work hard on an idea and show it someone, they don’t even listen and brush off the idea. What a set back. You do an amazing job, the client is equally happy, send an invoice and guess what, Yes, yet another set back. The client loved how quickly your team turned around things and for once you request for a testimonial. Guess what? Yes, the set back. An unplanned leave when work when things are not going well, a set back. An invoice you were expecting close to the month end, never came. Another setback.

Its tiring to keep pushing when everything around you is falling apart even after doing things pretty well. Worse part is, being open about it and sharing with the team and still keeping the chin up and moving on.

And Yet..

I would ONLY do this every single day god allows me to do.

What It’s Really Like to Be a Founder: Stress, Guilt, and Zero Glamour