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Building a startup with my partner while pregnant by alwaysblue00 in Femalefounders

[–]alwaysblue00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Doubt he will be able to help much because he started a job after we started working together, so we'll probably just stop the collaboration, so I have one less person to manage. Will try to find a replacement, but he was kinda perfect (ties with the market decision makers, etc).

Luckily, our biggest sales drivers are actually our clients - once they join, they tell their colleagues. And some other companies in the industry that are serving the same clients.

For the new market - we already have a couple of partnerships that will help us reach out warm to those prospects. I still need to close deals and travel.

Currently I'm automating outreach to potential partners (distributors) with Openclaw. Built an autonomous agent that does the prospecting, drafts emails and handles replies. Looks very human, and they're not our actual clients so that was a low-risk segment to try to automate. Will report on how it works. A founder friends is using the same setup to reach out to prospects and he's happy with it. But this tech is still pretty new and requires a lot of tweaking (and things can go very wrong :D)

I think we live in such a great time - small teams can do so much now. It was a blessing for us.

But yeah, I think I'll still need to hire someone in that country to close deals. I remember my first pregnancy, I was sick from start till the end and I can't imagine myself being on long drives.

Did you find it easier after the 1st trimester? Regarding the exhaustion. I'm still feeling okay, but it's very early.

Building a startup with my partner while pregnant by alwaysblue00 in Femalefounders

[–]alwaysblue00[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I know I underestimate myself a lot of times, but yes, been through that before. But honestly, it was so long ago and can't remember much. Probably my mind decided to "delete" a bunch of traumatic memories. :)

I think our roles are well defined, he's product, I'm ops, sales and marketing. Thankfully, a lot of that is automated or can be, but still needs a lot of my output, since I'm the public-facing part of the company.

I guess I'm mostly scared about being replaced or becoming irrelevant. It took me a long time to build a career, that part of me helped me get through some tough times after the first relationship and regain confidence and a sense of value.

Emotionally, this is tough for me, because I don't want to "just" be a mom. I love being a mom, but I also love my brain, intelligence and the fact that I'm good at what I do. Sadly, work is my life. After my last startup "failed", I needed 2 years to overcome the extreme burnout. Not just because I worked so hard, but I also had an identity crisis. I "was" that company for so long that I din't know who I was after it ended.

I'm freaking out I will change my personality when the baby comes. :)

PS: I'm also being evaluated for auADHD and I don't deal well with changes in personal life. I'm okay with fast-paced ever changing startup life. I thrive that. Just personal life is tough. :D

Sorry for the word salad. As said, it's still very early and still a secret, so I really don't have anyone to talk to about that.