30 minutes of raw founder therapy

5 honest questions my co-founder and myself ask each other after a year of working together

Since the war started Lera and I tend to go deep into why we do what we do and why we don’t do something else. We call it therapy since translating emotions into a narrative carries a therapeutic effect on both of us and most of you.

Usually, we stick to the strongest emotion of the week that we were able to digest and explain - perhaps something about customer behavior or about how two of us function subconsciously or maybe some cautionary tale from the week. Many of our episodes aged pretty well.

In today’s audio Lera brought 5 questions from a business coach and I brought 5 questions from a therapist:

1. What do you like about your work personality today and how did it change from a year ago

2. What are the top 3 things you like about working with me?

3. How do you defocus from work as you leave the office?

4. When thinking about the future, what are you afraid of?

5. We're very open and public about our feelings and emotions, why do you think we can do this? Most people can't unless they're drunk.

And another five:

1. What annoys you in being a startup founder?

2. What was the unexpected thing you learned upon becoming a startuper?

3. Who inspires you?

4. Reasons to not become a startup founder?

5. How much do you earn?

It is an easy listen, though a bit longer to make it up for the two skipped weeks this month.

I talk a lot about how Lera and I communicate without words by just feeling each other’s emotions and people think we’re either crazy or joking. Or both. And we probably are, yet in this episode, we had a chance to explain how it works and then perform an accidental demo. Another reason to listen to the audio.

A few weeks ago at a four-day metal festival, I was so tired and emotionally backlogged, overwhelmed by the nature and activities that I felt like hiding from friends until I bumped into a lovely couple - Salvija and Benas.

I knew only Salvija a little from before, but I felt very comfortable just chilling with them, moving across stages, in the crowd, getting drinks and vibing with the music. We’d know what each of us wanted and if we all agreed on doing something else, moving on, etc by looking at each other plus some gestures, and a few words.

Dunno, I like talking, but sometimes a single glance or an eye-roll tells much more than a prepared narrative.

What is on the cover?

Rose Cremant and Fabijoniskes.

This is not how the recording of this podcast went. Moreover, this is not Lera and me, but this is my photo from a few weeks ago. I arrived to that roof to meet an Instagram-acquaintance and left the roof feeling that I got a new friend.

Somehow we had hours of deep conversations on that roof, looking over the old soviet district, thinking about life, learning about each other and opening up for no reason. It wasn’t a romantic endeavor, but rather two strong independent individuals dreaming aloud.

The photo on the cover illustrates a much less focused and more casual way of talking to people and feeling a little vulnerable, something that doesn’t feel like work or a therapy session. And it is totally different from how Lera and I operate together.

In the audio, I preach opening up and giving away my vulnerabilities as my modus operandi, but Lera slaps me back that it is only possible because I was able to surround myself with good people. May I wish you all to pick people with who you surround yourself too?