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How We Secretly Lose Control of Our Startups
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table

Our Startups Amplify Our Social Lives

Wil Schroter

Our Startups Amplify Our Social Lives

Sometimes our startup IS our social life.

When we put it like that, it almost sounds kind of sad. We're told by others (heretics!) that we need a life inside and outside of our startup. We're supposed to have families, loved ones, and friends who we create amazing experiences with that have absolutely nothing to do with work. And of course, that's important.

But our startups aren't just about work — they are also a very important part of our social fabric whether we want to believe they are or not. In fact, if we were to sell our startup and have nothing to do with it, many of us would miss the very real social connection we took for granted.

As Founders, we get to enjoy a very special kind of opportunity to build and expand our social lives that many others never get, and in fact, we often take for granted.


The Trenches Forge Bonds

We're in the trenches with our peers navigating some of the most trying moments of our lives all day, every day. That shared experience creates a powerful bond of trust, vulnerability, and triumph that we frankly rarely get with anyone else we meet. It's not incidental.

At the time it's easy to overlook because we're all worn out. But over time when we look back, we find ourselves developing incredibly deep, personal relationships with people that we would have never had the time and focus to develop outside of our startup.

One could argue that we have more reps with the people we work with than nearly anyone else we spend time with, just based on the number of hours we spend alone. Are there any other relationships where we spend 80+ hours per week intensely focused on the outcome of that relationship? Probably not!

A Magnet of Interesting People

One of the things that I didn't recognize early in my career was how many new and interesting people being the Founder of a company would introduce me to. As the Founder, we create a tractor beam of so many people, from investors to interviewees, vendors to the media, not to mention a hell of a lot of other Founders.

There's rarely a job or role in life that "forces" us to meet so many interesting people in so many different walks of life. On top of that, we get to be a powerful force in so many lives that creates a center of gravity for relationships to build and mature together.

When I look back on decades of being a Founder, I have over 10,000 contact names in my phone, most of which came from my life as a Founder and so many incredible friendships that were built. I can't imagine a more powerful catalyst for expanding my social graph of real people.

Our Voice Attracts an Audience

Our position as Founders also affords us a voice that people may listen to. In fact, if you're reading this, you know exactly what I mean. Whether it's writing a newsletter, hosting a podcast, or droning on endlessly on social media, our startups give us a recognizable and authoritative voice that not only builds audiences but can also build relationships if we let them.

Once again our startups act as a powerful amplifying force that puts us in front of exponentially more new faces than being "Employee 19,527 with a Name Badge" did at our last job.

While we can easily cite all the reasons our startups hamper our social lives, from missing kids' soccer games to passing on yet another night out with our friends, we have to recognize and take advantage of all of the ways it actually makes us way more social than we'd ever be without them.

In Case You Missed It

Optimizing for Happiness (podcast). What if our work hours gave us more time with our kids or who we worked with were only the people we enjoyed the most? The key is thinking about our startup differently by using "personal happiness" as a core tenet of how the company works.e

How to be a Happy Entrepreneur. Everything about entrepreneurship works against our basic human desires for comfort, stability and predictability. So, how do we keep ourselves happy and sane while we’re on the path to creating a better life for ourselves, and a better world for others?

Can Doing Non-Startup Stuff Help My Startup? Sometimes the best way to grow our startups is to spend some time doing stuff that has nothing to do with our startups!

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