What its like being a new founder/owner
Hi guys, I am a new founder of an AI agency, Think Bridging AI.
My journey started last year in July when I suddenly had to drop out of 3rd year Mechanical engineering. Honestly, I always wanted to start my own thing and so I was quite excited to finally try it out. Unfortunately, the reality hit, when all those, 'get rich fast', 'get leads fast', and 'get your first customer in 7 days' Youtube channels burst my bubble.
It's not that easy. I still have a client or 2 in the pipeline which took 6 months to get, 100s of emails sent, and stress levels through the roof.
Are we all on the same journey, or is it just me?
Replies
Welcome. I hate those videos now, I used to watche them as wel but realised that's not the reality.
Good luck with your journey. It's worth it!
Product Hunt
@mzkvisuals Yeah, the quick success videos make great marketing, but reality is it's often a grind.
@alan_rivera I think the real struggle is having tons to do and soo many ideas/strategies to implement. It's the exact opposite when I had no ideas and was trying to figure out how to start.
Don't give up and don't suppress yourself. Document and systematize the process to lighten the burden on your mind. At the end of the tunnel, the bright sunlight awaits.
@kay_arkain I think there's sometimes no system that really works in the beginning. It's more like try, it fails, try again or improve.
10/10 can relate.
The whole "just do X and you'll get clients in a week" thing is such a trap. No one tells you that the early days are just you throwing stuff at the wall, questioning your life choices, and somehow surviving on caffeine and sheer stubbornness.
For me, the hardest part has been choosing what to focus on. There’s this endless flood of ideas and things we could do, but spreading yourself too thin is a guaranteed way to burn out. Nowadays I'll pick 1-2 key bets and go all in. (Not easy, but definitely helps.)
Good luck and keep cracking on!
Product Hunt
Starting something from zero is never easy. My last startup, we were pivoting around in the wilderness for well over a year. It can be difficult to know whether you're making progress. But something that we always came back to that might help is every week we do a retro and we ask ourselves what our learning rate was: low, medium, or high. And if it's not high, what would get it to high? That way we could ensure we're always learning and making progress, even if it's hard to measure objectively.
Good luck!
Purposeful Poop
@rajiv_ayyangar this is great advice. psyched i saw this.
@tejal_bipath Totally relate! The ‘quick success’ myth is everywhere, but the reality is countless emails, rejections, and months of grinding. I’m also building AI-driven customer engagement solutions—what’s been your biggest struggle so far?
Don't get discouraged. This is the reality of building any new business. Everyone who says it's 'easy' is trying to sell you something. It's hard. And that's a good thing - if it was easy everyone would do it and there would be no outsized returns to be made.