Each stage of building a company tests your judgment and your ability to stay grounded when things get unpredictable. Over 40+ episodes of our podcast, Coffee with a Founder, we’ve learned lessons on how to shift your mindset when things get challenging, why emotional intelligence matters, and practical wisdom that separates momentum from burnout. Below are five of our favorite lessons direct from founders.
Why excitement matters: Tushar Bagamane (Vola Finance) calls excitement his “favorite emotion.” It’s the source of energy for coming up with new ideas and executing on them, even when it’s scary. “Excitement helps you overcome the anxiety. So I’d rather have more excitement,” he says.
How to channel your anxiety productively: He reframes anxiety by zooming out, gathering data, and turning uncertainty into planning. “The ability to control and the predictability of things helps me make that exciting for myself,” he explains.
Founder tip: Use excitement as your engine. For times when anxiety creeps in, respond with curiosity and analysis, not avoidance.
Fundraising ≠ Success: Michelle Volberg (Twill) learned that every investor offers a different, and often conflicting, opinion. For her, fundraising went from being the “finish line” to simply “the beginning of launching your company.”
Shift from being an ‘AI maximalist’: Edward Tian (GPTZero) changed his view from “AI everywhere” to recognizing the value of doing some things without AI.
From ‘cool tech’ to real solutions: Orianna Bretschger (Aquacycl) discovered the power of not “talking about a technology anymore and really [talking] about problems that we solve.”
Founder tip: Stay flexible in your thinking. Today’s conviction might be tomorrow’s constraint. Growth means rethinking, so celebrate when you change your mind for the better.
Don’t chase validation: Michelle Volberg shares, “I wasn’t willing to raise investor capital unless I had a strong business model. If the growth is good, the investors come.”
Play buyer, not beggar: She also leans into “cat energy” — walking into VC meetings with confidence and curiosity. “Ask investors questions just as they ask you. It’s a two-way dialogue. Be the buyer.”
Founder tip: In VC rooms, traction and composure speak louder than hype. Engage as equals, and don’t lose sleep over contradictory advice.
Celebrate daily wins: Richard Schatzberger (ALTR) says, “Success...was an end goal...But I’ve changed that now. How are the small successes? How are the moments where you can stop and feel great about what you’re doing?”
Measure ripple effects: For Michelle Volberg, success is “every time someone gets a job through Twill that otherwise would have been overlooked...That will always be a marker of success for me.”
It’s about meaningful difference: Suman Kanuganti (Personal AI) offers: “Are you able to make a meaningful difference to a large group of people out there? That’s kind of how I define it.”
Founder tip: Celebrate every small win, every user helped, every ripple you cause.
Commit to people-first values: Michelle Volberg became clear that, “Twill will always be a people-first company...We’re in the business of people getting hired…we will never be an AI company.”
Success starts with human process: Edward Tian realized, “Writing is...majority not actually the generative process, it’s the editing process.” In a tech-everywhere world, human creativity still rules.
Founder tip: Clarity is a compass. Fight for your people-first core, even if tech is your toolkit.
Ready to rethink how you build? These founder lessons remind us to stay open, stay real, and never settle for old definitions of success. Want more? Subscribe to Coffee with a Founder.