Every entrepreneur struggles. An honest look at the unseen challenges of building a company—and why it’s part of the journey.

I’m an entrepreneur. I work hard, I play hard, and I post on social media about my successes, and about the attractive people I meet in entrepreneurial high society.

Wait, no.

I’m an entrepreneur, I work hard, I struggle over and over again, and you normally don’t hear anything about those struggles outside my founding team, my family, and my inner circle of friends.

Nevertheless, I think it’s time to talk honestly about an entrepreneur’s struggle because I don’t think you can build a company without struggling. I know what I’m talking about, I have been the Founder & CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company since 2015.

Before Product-Market Fit

The lifecycle of a new company starts with all odds against it. Either you offer a product that directly competes with existing products, putting you at a disadvantage. Or you offer a product so new and unseen that adoption in the market is slow and painful.

I remember being laughed at at a trade show, hearing that the product we started building would never work in the market.

Not nice. Are we doing something wrong, or did we just run into somebody who doesn’t know what he or she is talking about? Go back, research, discuss, improve. All these activities are time-consuming, painful, and not something to post on social media. But they are a reality, and they are needed on your way to product market fit.

Even before product-market fit is achieved, entrepreneurs start hiring people. Hiring people is arguably the most difficult task an entrepreneur is facing. Either you are hiring your friends, which can set loose all sorts of problems down the road. Or you are hiring people you don’t know, leaving you in the void whether they are up to the challenges of working in an early-stage startup.

Everyone’s job description will change multiple times along the dirt track from startup to established company.

I had to say goodbye to some colleagues who at some point weren’t the right fit anymore for the phase the company was in.

Not easy. “Good fit” doesn’t change into “poor fit” overnight. It’s a slow process, and during that process, you can never be sure if it’s you who is wrong, or your colleague. But at some point, you will have to face an unpleasant discussion with your colleague and bear the consequences of that discussion. Did I post about this on social media? Certainly not.

After Product-Market Fit

Fast-forward to the moment you have reached product market fit, making revenues, and having built a team to drive growth and product development.

Suddenly, you receive a call from a dissatisfied customer. Ugly bug. Immediate fix required. However, no data is available to reproduce the bug. Your team doesn’t know exactly what to do due to missing log data. Your customer says you’re too slow fixing it.

Many times have I pushed my team to let go of everything else to fix an urgent bug. The larger your company becomes, the less a CEO should do that. Nevertheless, sometimes you have to. But is this bug the top priority? You don’t know, and you will never know. Will you post on social media once the bug is fixed? Hell, no.

The Point of This Story?

An entrepreneur’s struggle will never stop. Never. Cut the illusion. Don’t start a company with the images from social media on your mind.

Be prepared for an endless struggle. Be prepared for unfinished to-do lists because some unexpected problem suddenly appeared. You can’t control the timing of problems and crises.

And if the real-life examples above are not enough, add a little dose of external struggles: pandemics, geopolitics, inflation.

And if it’s still not enough, try growing a company and raising children at the same time.

Welcome to my world.