Susan Findlater’s Post

Just how on earth do you switch your mind off from your startup? When you work in a startup you are passionate about, you find it includes itself in all elements of your life, without permission. You can be on holiday and you are wondering how the hotel recruits it's staff, or in a sports stadium wondering if they are monitoring their online reviews. It is relentless, or at least in my case. 10 years ago, i didn't mind, I even embraced it. working as many hours as possible. Now, being a little older, I work in a quantity over quality mindset. So finding a release from startup thinking became super important for me. My need to discover my 'unplug' from startup life. For me it's a constant challenge to find this. The reason being is that for my brain, it needs to be the right mixture of three elements. Engaging, relaxing and rewarding. Engaging for me means that it has to be something that takes enough focus that I can't be thinking about work in the back of my brain. I.e. watching episodes of friends is relaxing but after 3 minutes i'll be thinking in the back of my head how it relates to ATS recruitment systems. Whereas learning to wake board was amazingly engaging and rewarding, but I was exhausted after. For a long time, playing FIFA was my release. It was that level of brain activity that didn't allow me to think about other things, while being fun. However I didn't turn on my PS5 for months because now it feels like time wasted into the void. There was no reward. Along came #lego ( the LEGO Group ), and for me it's ticking all the boxes. It requires me to be focused, but not so much that it's tiring. It is relaxing, as i find myself in some kind of zen state, and easily 3 hours can pass by without thinking. It's rewarding because ultimately you are left with a prize. One that now sits proudly on my shelf. Plus, it's a great option for me to bond with my two sons over, however for sure it's not a parent only pass time. I'm not sure if every startup person needs an unplug or it's just me, but if you do, i'd love to know yours as i'm constantly looking for alternatives.

"Sick days" don't exist when you work for your own startup. And I got COVID last week 🤒 To say it was one of the most challenging weeks of the year would be an understatement Back when I worked for a large company I took for granted sick days and PTO Where you can just put "OOO" on your calendar for a week And pass on your work to someone on your team But when you are in the early days of a startup Building deep in the trenches Wearing every hat of the business You don't get the luxury of "calling in sick" and taking time off As you are the bottleneck in everything And the company stops when YOU stop But the wheels are turning at Creator Match 🧩 And we are building strong momentum We can't just "call out sick" for a week as we have active LinkedIn influencer campaigns running with the biggest Brands in the world With thousands of dollars of campaign budget on the line And revolutionary tech we are building to power this new era So it made me realize that YOU should never be the bottleneck in your company And it's ok to delegate work and trust your team The goal of an Entrepreneur is to work ON the biz not in the biz So we are growing our team at Creator Match 🧩 [More to come on open roles - stay tuned 👀 ] And we are ensuring proper training and upskilling for everyone So if I am out sick or anyone on the team for that matter It's totally ok And things move forward 💬 How do you delegate work? What tips do you have for training? *** 🔔 If you found this helpful, you would love my other content - be sure to follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 #creatormatch #buildinpublic

Reflecting on my first 6 months after quitting my job 🧘 This afternoon, I took some time to reflect on my journey, and I’m feeling both proud and content. 💪 Many days some doubt is creeping in: » Could I have made more progress if I had spent less time on personal branding? » Did I have to buy these tools? My runway would be longer if I hadn’t or skipped that lunch with my friend. » Why are other founders more successful in securing subsidies or more efficient with content creation? Can I even make this work? » Should I have taken those weekends off? Can a founder afford such breaks? » I’ve wasted time on irrelevant content and have missed out on startup and AI articles. Am I truly at the top of my game? When I’m reflecting, I notice the shift from insecurity and dissatisfaction to pride and gratitude. ↪️ So here’s another way to look at it: In the past six months, I left a fulfilling job with a decent salary to pursue a career that aligns with my purpose. And I’ve found it. 💚 I’ve expanded my network, deepened my AI and startup knowledge, identified a problem worth solving and shaped a concept: With SAM, found a technical mentor and future cofounder, met supportive individuals, delivered value to early-stage sustainable startups, and showcased my expertise in Q&A settings (which I love 🤩). All while boosting my energy, together raising our 2-year-old, managing a mortgage, make time for my partner and even fitting in some kitesurfing when possible. ❤️🔥 I'm happy, I've grown and I've progressed in six months! I can do more, and better and I’m committed to pushing myself harder in the next half-year, as well as make sure to acknowledge and by proud of my progress. Jotting down the goals for the next half year right now, and let’s go! 🚀 #StartupSuccess #buildinginpublic #founder #goals -—————————— ➕ 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼: 🚀 Get through the early startup stages 💚 Startup with love for the planet

Your first 90 days at a new job have an outsize impact on your next one to two years. It’s your chance to establish trust, influence, and build a reputation within the org. To do this well, you want to show quick wins: low-effort, high-impact changes that create a sense of “Holy shit, this person is amazing.” Lenny Rachitsky and I asked the sharpest tech operators we know about their most effective early quick wins. These operators have a track record of significant impact and rave reviews from their colleagues, at well-loved brands like Asana, Calendly, Canva, Dropbox, Linktree, Ramp, and Wiz. Even if you’re not starting a new job, most of these ideas can be implemented anytime. Here are 25 quick wins to make an impact: https://lnkd.in/ee-JfpS7 HUGE thank you 🙏🙏 to the folks who shared their 🔥 insights. They’re tagged in the comments. #startup #career #growth #newhire

25 gems here! From copy to customers through to making your people great, this simple matrix should be discussed at your next leadership meeting. Thanks Kyle Poyar

This week we are exploring the “industry" of senior professionals who retired, but don’t want to just stay at home and do nothing. Imagine a platform that would focus on part-time, flexible, or project-based jobs that are particularly suitable for retirees looking to stay active in the workforce, use their expertise, or supplement their income from the comfort of their home. Check your inboxes for this week's startup idea and let us know if you like it! 🚀

Thinking of joining a startup? SPOILER: It's not all rainbows and unicorns. Many female founders get lured into the startup world for the wrong reasons. Here's the harsh truth: It's not just about cool offices and flexible hours. It's a grind. Isn't it worth it? Let’s break it down: 🔹 Constant Hustle: You will work weekends. 🔹 Uncertainty: Say goodbye to job security. 🔹 Wear Many Hats: From coder to marketer to janitor. When I started Fe/male Switch, I tackled all roles – developer, marketing guru, even the coffee maker. It was chaotic but rewarding. But there's a silver lining: ✨ Impact: Your ideas come to life. ✨ Growth: Personal and professional rapid growth. ✨ Connections: Network with brilliant minds. Example: Slack began as a gaming company. Pivoting turned a failure into a billion-dollar tool. So, are you ready for the ride? What’s your experience with startup life? Share your stories. P.S. Celebrate small wins. Trust me, you need that boost!

I used to avoid problems, like in the picture, by simply not looking at them. Ever found yourself in a situation where, despite a lot of support and learning opportunities, things just didn’t work out? I faced this when I joined a startup. The team was incredibly supportive and taught me a lot. However, I struggled to fit into their work environment and meet their expectations. Despite my best efforts, we couldn’t align and had to part ways. This experience taught me that facing challenges directly is crucial. Even with great support, things might not always align, and that’s okay. What matters is learning from the experience and continuing to grow. #Growth #Freelancing #CareerLessons

Resilience is not glamorous. It is also the one thing that separates success from failure - particularly if you're running a startup. Here's what resilience has looked like for me: 💪 Calmly taking in the news that a key employee unexpectedly had to quit, and pulling several all nighters to do two people's work till I was able to re-hire. 💪 Watching my ad account suddenly dip into negative ROAS for no good reason, and showing up day after day for two weeks to get it back on track. 💪 Having Meta DELETE my ad account due to a technical glitch, and then using every trick in the bag to retrieve it before there was permanent damage. 💪 Seeing orders unexpectedly surge 75% in a month, and manning unprecedented load on my customer care team myself to manage the crisis. 💪 Getting back home from my sister's wedding and taking a flight out to conduct an offline event in another city - being on my feet for 12 hours a day, talking to customers and selling. Sometimes the grind is a mental and emotional roller coaster, sometimes a physical one. On the days that things go wrong - if often feels like EVERYTHING is going wrong all at the same time. What keeps you going in the tough times? Tell me in comments! #startuplife #building #entrepreneurship #resilience

Pivot or perish. Slack started as a gaming company (Tiny Speck), and Groupon started as a social activism platform (The Point). Both pivoted dramatically to get where they are now. We celebrated Hofy’s 4th birthday this week, but Hofy is not the product Michael Ginzo and I started our founders' journey with. In 2019, we founded a micromobility business (yes, electric scooters!). We both shared a deep hatred of what commuting in dense urban areas had become, and we didn’t feel like any alternatives to public transport or sitting in a car were good enough. In late February 2020, 9 months into our start-up journey, COVID started spreading outside China and it became clear that people would not be commuting for the next couple of months or years; therefore the problem we were solving was no longer urgent. Less than a week later, we pulled the plug on scooters and started Hofy to help organisations seamlessly set up their newly distributed teams with home offices. In just over 2 weeks, we signed the CQC, part of the UK’s NHS, to help them set up 500 team members for remote work. We promised to deliver this in 5 working days, and we did. Throughout and post-COVID, we continued iterating and developing the proposition. So here we are, 4 years later, having built the most advanced platform for automating the onboarding, lifecycle management and offboarding of your team-members’ equipment. We have set up tens of thousands of remote workers in 120+ countries and exceeded our 99% on-time delivery target in the last quarter, hitting 99.4%. Thank you to every single Hofian who’s helped us get here - we could not have done without the incredible team behind us. But it’s important not to trivialise how hard it is to pivot. Pivoting is hard. Internally, we founders need high conviction to launch a start-up. Externally, we need to project that conviction to our teams, customers and investors, and persevere the most when things get hard. To make things worse, over time, sunk cost fallacy kicks in, and whether we like it or not, people start defining us by our businesses. Despite Michael Ginzo and I (a) getting the strongest macro signal (impending lockdowns) we could have ever hoped for, (b) this happening early into our start-up journey (9 months), (c) not having any employees or customers to let down, and (d) only having taken a little bit of pre-seed F&F money, it was hard to fight our deep belief that a better micromobility product for commuting should exist and that we should be ones building it. I have a lot of respect for founders who have the courage to pivot much later in their journeys than we did. After almost 2 hours trying to come up with some explicit framework that might help other founders, the best I could come up with is this: If your gut tells you (a) this is a problem worth solving, and (b) you think you are *a* good individual to build a business to solve the problem, then keep going. For us, (a) stopped being true 9 months in.