Hard Founder Choices We Don’t Talk About Enough

This weekend, Jatin Chaudhary invited me to speak on a panel of women founders for one of his eChai Ventures startup meet ups. I found myself speaking about lessons from my last 2 years, which honestly felt like 4!

Amid a roomful of aspiring and hustling entrepreneurs, Radhika Mohta was asking some very thoughtful questions about the hard pivots, the difficult exits, and the moments when a founder has to choose between staying and completion.

A few reflections and opinions I shared (and these are applicable to jobs/workplaces/clients also):

𝐎𝐧 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞: There's a difference between quitting and completion. Quitting is running from hard things. Completion is honoring that your chapter has ended even if the book continues.

𝐎𝐧 𝐜𝐨-𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐬: You can respect someone's skills deeply and still recognize you can't build together long-term. Both things can be true. The hard part is distinguishing between disagreement about tactics (healthy) and disagreement about values (terminal). The former you debate. The latter you exit. 

𝐎𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐚 "𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥" 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭: Exits come in many forms - acquisition, IPO, shutdown, and also...walking away. The only bad exit is the one where you abandon your values to stay. This also applies to jobs we work every day.

𝐓𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨-𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐈 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫: thank you for trusting me with your stories. If my exits taught me anything, it's that the companies that didn't work out the way I planned forced me to ask the questions that are shaping who I am today.

What kind of founder do I want to be? 
What's non-negotiable for me?

I wouldn't have asked those questions if everything had gone perfectly. 

P.S - I was 15 minutes late to my own panel because Bangalore traffic had other plans. Some exits you can control. Some you just survive. But hey! I made it.

So will you.