Launching Our New Podcast: Startup Growth Stories

Let’s face it, founding a startup is tough.

Every day you’re faced with a new challenge—oftentimes it's something you aren’t prepared for. But you roll up your sleeves and dig in anyways. Over time, you become acclimated to the constant peaks and troughs. The highs and the lows. You quickly learn that overcoming daily obstacles is part of the job description and you strap in for the wild ride with no destination in sight. You become addicted to the challenge. The excitement. Navigating the ship through choppy, sometimes unchartered waters. Eventually, after months or years, the long hours and intense focus can end up impacting your physical and mental health, eventually leading to Founder Fatigue.

I’ve personally experienced this during my entrepreneurial journey, and I know other founders who have too. Discussing the entrepreneurial adversity with other founders who are facing the same pressure can go a long way towards overcoming it; unfortunately, founders willing to share these challenges openly and honestly are few and far between.

As a founder, you are the backbone of the organization and are expected to stand strong in the face of adversity and choppy waters. The buck stops with you, and most of the weight is on your shoulders.

While my calendar keeps me busy during the day, it’s the long backlog of strategic decisions, investor concerns, and human capital considerations that keep me up at night. Then there’s the balancing act of the needs of the business with your own, which can really be challenging. It’s hard to juggle both business and family, fitness, wellness, and mental health, just to name a few. Without an outlet to share those daily struggles, the pressure can compound and hit you hard.

And yet, despite all of these lows, nothing compares to the highs that founders experience when things do go their way—e.g. when they sign a large customer, bring on a new teammate, or secure another round of funding.

But what about the uncut, unfiltered and honest startup stories founders rarely get to hear? The ones that don’t just talk about the highs, but also the lows and the lessons learned along the way. The challenges founders faced, the impact that starting and scaling their business had on their physical and mental health, their friends and family, and how they coped?

Those honest truths are the ones that matter most. These stories are the ones that actually help you deal with the pressures of running a business.

That’s why Arc is launching Startup Growth Stories—a series of honest interviews with a wide range of founders—from seed startups to late-stage unicorns. While the topics covered vary from episode to episode, they typically center on how they secured their first customers, attracted their first employees, and grew their business. In the final minutes, founders get vulnerable—they talk about the impact of founding (and growing) the company on their well-being, their relationships and their families, and how they navigated their entrepreneurial journey.

The first few guests of the podcast include the founders of Vouch, Jeeves, Merge, Middesk, Demostack, Pocus, Fundbox, and more. Over the coming weeks, we’ll expand the list to also include the executives of large businesses to provide a more holistic perspective.

Founder Fatigue is real, but there are a lot of entrepreneurs who have overcome it. This podcast tells their story. By giving founders a platform to share their stories and discuss the impact that growing a business has had on them, we want to help others working through the same challenges. This podcast is made by founders for founders, to help startups grow. 

Startup Growth Stories is available on all major streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Podcasts. To view the full list of episodes, or to apply to be a guest on the show, get in touch with us.

Yours in the journey,
Don