In just seven days, everything changed. A major client got acquired. Another slashed budgets. Two big deals vanished overnight thanks to AI. And a trusted team member — gone. In this episode, I take you inside the chaos: the scramble to save revenue, the reality behind “fake it till you make it,” the pressure of leading through an AI-driven market shift, and the heartbreak of tough internal decisions.

If you’ve ever wondered what it really feels like to be a founder when the hits just keep coming, this is the week you’ll never forget. And stay tuned — next time, I’ll take you into the investor meeting that changed everything.

Keywords: startup founder story, business challenges, client loss, AI impact on business, leadership under pressure, entrepreneurship reality, small business struggles, tough leadership decisions, HR challenges, startup survival, founder podcast, behind the scenes startup.

In this episode of The Founder’s Confession, I take you inside a defining moment of my startup journey — the investor meeting I’d been avoiding for over a year. This isn’t just about business. It’s about trust, survival, and the emotional toll of building a company from the ground up in Silicon Valley.

I share my full backstory: moving to the United States to set up a subsidiary, surviving a visa crisis that nearly forced my family to leave, dealing with shifting commission structures, and navigating corporate politics that tested my resolve. Along the way, a long-time client became an investor — someone I believed I could trust. But working with him was nothing like I expected.

When I finally made the call, his warm response caught me off guard. We agreed to meet for lunch. I walked into that meeting wondering if I was stepping into a second chance… or a trap.

If you’re looking for founder stories, entrepreneur lessons, investor relations insights, or startup challenges from the trenches, this episode delivers a raw, unfiltered look at what really happens behind the scenes.

After months of scraping by, it finally felt like we’d turned a corner — payroll was covered, projects were running, and for the first time in a long time, I could breathe. We celebrated small wins, handed out our first annual gifts, and I began to believe the worst was behind us.

Then, everything shifted. Our biggest client fell behind on payments… and two weeks later, the phone rang with news that shook me to my core. The CEO — my main contact and a genuinely good man — had died in a tragic accident.

What followed were two sleepless months, desperate to replace the revenue we’d just lost. We landed extra work, experimented wildly with hiring, and learned the hard way that not all sales hires are salespeople.

But through it all, one unresolved chapter loomed: the investor I had been avoiding for over a year. We hadn’t had a real business conversation in ages. I didn’t know if he’d be angry, dismissive, or worse… but I knew I had to face him.

What happens when your biggest threat isn’t the market… but someone on your own payroll?
In this episode of The Founder’s Confession, I reveal the inside story of how an investor went silent, my first hire walked away, and a “Director of Sales” created chaos that almost derailed the company. You’ll hear the hard lessons about managing remote teams, surviving HR politics, and why one bad hire can snowball into a company-wide crisis. From creative cost-cutting to a $250K deal that kept us alive, this is a raw, unfiltered look at the breaking point before the breakthrough.

Two weeks. No calls. No texts. Payroll looming. And an investor who had promised to keep us afloat was suddenly silent. In this episode, I share the desperate step I took — calling his spouse — and the cold, unsettling conversation that followed. What happened next was a mix of awkward meetings, half-payments, and a growing pit in my stomach as the reality set in: I had made the biggest blunder of my entrepreneurial career. This isn’t just about money — it’s about trust, survival, and the moment you realize you’ve given away too much control.

In this episode of The Founder’s Confession, I take you inside one of the most nerve-wracking chapters of my journey as a CEO. It began with promises—fifteen strong commitments from trusted contacts, the kind that make you believe your launch is destined for success. But within months, every deal vanished, the pipeline dried up, and my family was feeling the impact in ways that broke my heart. Then, out of nowhere, a lifeline appeared: a project from a Fortune 200 company that could change everything. I signed the deal, called my investor with the good news… and was met with nothing but silence. For two weeks, I waited, wondering if this was the moment it would all fall apart. Tune in to hear the story of pressure, hope, and the deafening quiet that followed.

In this episode, I pull back the curtain on the funding decision that nearly derailed my startup before it even began. I walked away from a secure corporate role in the U.S. to chase a dream with two trusted co-founders. The plan? Raise a million dollars and hit the ground running. But one tense lunch meeting between potential investors changed everything — and forced me into a decision I’ll never forget. I took the money, skipped the paperwork, and only later realized I’d handed over significant control without even knowing it. Then came the twist: the investor decided to release funds on hisschedule, putting the entire company’s future in his hands. This is the story of how trust, urgency, and my own values collided — and how that collision became one of the toughest tests I’ve faced as a founder.

Between Glory and Survival is an unfiltered journey into the heart of entrepreneurship — where ambition collides with reality, and success is measured as much by resilience as by revenue. This isn’t about overnight billionaires or tragic wipeouts. It’s about the space in between, where most founders actually live.

Each episode pulls back the curtain on the real highs and lows of building a business. You’ll hear the lessons learned through trial, error, and sheer persistence. The tough calls that kept the lights on. The small victories that made the struggle worthwhile. And the moments that tested whether the dream was worth the cost.

Told through first-hand experience, this show offers an honest look at what it takes to keep going when the road gets harder than you imagined. You’ll hear about the sacrifices made, the risks taken, and the unexpected turns that shaped the journey.

Whether you’re an aspiring founder, a seasoned entrepreneur, or simply curious about what happens when passion meets pressure, this is your backstage pass to the real world of business building. No buzzwords. No fake wins. Just stories that prove you don’t have to be a billionaire to live the entrepreneur’s life — you just have to survive it.