Being a founder is lonely as hell.
Nobody talks about that part.
They talk about the funding rounds, the product launches, the team photos with everyone smiling. But they don't talk about the Sunday nights when you're wondering if you're completely delusional. The conversations with your partner where you can't explain why you keep doing this to yourself. The moments when every other career path seems sane and yours feels insane.
Here's the thing
I started FoundersColumn because I was tired of the bullshit. Tired of the LinkedIn posts about "failing fast" and "embracing uncertainty" that make it sound like some kind of game. Tired of success stories that skip over the part where you ate ramen for six months and questioned everything.
Being a founder is hard. Really fucking hard. And pretending it's not doesn't help anyone.
What actually helps
Real stories. The kind your friends tell you over drinks, not the kind you put in your pitch deck. The moments when you almost quit. The stupid mistakes that nearly killed your company. The lucky breaks you're almost embarrassed to admit. The decisions that felt impossible at the time.
That's what we want here.
No bullshit policy
We're not looking for:
- How you "disrupted" an industry
- Your "10 lessons learned" listicle
- Humble brags disguised as vulnerability
- Anything that sounds like it came from a business book
We want the real story. The human one. The one that makes other founders nod and think "holy shit, me too."
If this resonates
Share your story with us. Not because it's "inspirational" or "motivational," but because it's true. And because somewhere, another founder needs to hear that they're not the only one who feels like they're making it up as they go along.
Email us. Tell us what really happened. We'll feature your story and hook you up with a FoundersBoxx discount, because we're all in this weird journey together.
The bottom line
Every founder has a story worth telling. Not the sanitized version, but the real one. The one that might actually help someone else feel less alone in this beautiful, terrifying, completely unreasonable thing we've chosen to do with our lives.
Let's tell those stories.
FoundersColumn - Real stories from founders who've been there.