Ask HN: How do you recover mentally after a failed startup?
Hi,
I started a company in 2019 after graduating from from undergrad.
This is a bootstrapped business and I built it as a solo founder.
Although it managed to get some traction (tens of thousands of users), I've basically at my wits-end on monetization.
The business is only generating ~50-60k per year in profits, and I've lost hope on seeing a path to scale it further.
When I graduated from college, I decided not to pursue significantly more lucrative option to work at a FAANG company and instead spent the last 4 years working extremely long hours on this business.
Over the last 4 years, I've basically done nothing but work 7 days a week and despite doing this, I have nothing to show for it.
Meanwhile, my friends from college all took 6 figure jobs, have traveled, made new friends, found gf/bfs, learned a ton, got promoted in their careers, etc.
Obviously this is entirely my fault and I take 100% responsibility for my decision. To fix my fuck up, I've started prepping LeetCode and plan to start interviewing for a job in 1-2 months (ya I picked a great time... I know)
Has anyone else been in a similar situation?
How do you recover mentally?
I feel like my self-confidence/feeling of self-worth has taken a massive hit. I've basically wasted the last 4 years of my life and I feel a deep sense of regret. I can't help but feel like these are valuable years where people build up their friend circles, finances, find a partner, etc.
I've done none of that and I feel like I'm extremely behind everyone else now.
Would love any advice. Thank you. Take a deep breath. You have plenty of time. If it still bothers you, then tell yourself that this can be the thing that makes you commit to improving your work/life balance for the rest of your life. So it was an experience you learned from. Also: your work experience will pay off in the job interviews that will land you the high salary. I've failed several times by that metric, and statistically everyone does who tries. So you should attempt not to feel deflated by where you are, though I know that that is much much easier said than done. (I have now semi-retired, early, and have started a PhD, and my kids are teenagers, and I am having plenty of fun, so this seems an acceptable sort of 'failure' to me!)