@SamuelAnders I was in my early 30s when my old boss died and, fed up working at dysfunctional companies, started my own on a shoestring. (Auto repair. ) What I had going for me was strong niche knowledge and talent, and a clientele that liked and trusted my "product. " Honestly, being the boss/owner can become all consuming of your life and time. The independence and autonomy, come at unstinting demands upon you. If you have the talent, drive, and importantly, shipping product, it can all be more rewarding than a life as a cog in someone else's machine. Being the boss, isn't all sitting back watching others do all the work while you count and bank all this fuck-you level of money rolling in. I can't offer much about the model of investors and lead time for development. Investors don't fork over money and hide, they bring demands of input on the products and development. Investors can come at a cost to your autonomy. All these caveats aside, if you have the vision and drive to make it work, it's inevitable you will forge your way in to actualizing these into a working enterprise. NGL, long days at Starfucks, is a fantasy holding pattern, nothing at all the life you have once you jump into the entrepreneur game for real.

I’ve wanted to start a company for as long as I can remember, going back to middle school, high school, and college. In 2020, someone very successful told me that one of my biggest mistakes was joining larger corporations instead of building something myself.

In 2023, I worked at a fast-growing startup where I felt I delivered strong results. But after the company raised a large amount of capital, it became clear that the leadership team was trying to reduce my role and replace me behind the scenes. I eventually decided to leave. Since then, the company has struggled badly, burned through a huge amount of money, and even some of its own investors reached out to me directly. They later laid off the entire sales team and many engineers as well.

In 2025 and 2026, I spent an enormous amount of time trying to understand how companies really work. I went deep into business, strategy, finance, accounting, market structure, and more. For months, I was studying from early morning until late at night, often spending entire days in Starbucks just trying to build a real foundation for myself.

Now I’m finally starting to meet investors who seem genuinely interested in backing me. At the same time, I still get nervous. I’m 30 now, and I keep wondering: does this sound like the right moment to go all in and start my own company?

Can someone help me understand what happened in this situation?

One night at a nightclub, I was sitting at a table celebrating someone’s birthday. There was also this promoter nearby who’s known for being really controlling. His table wasn’t doing great that night — only a few semi-attractive girls there — and he seemed irritated, maybe because I wasn’t hanging around his group.

Out of nowhere, he started giving one guy from my table this intense stare. That guy immediately looked uncomfortable, like nervous-body-language type stuff, head down, tense posture. Then suddenly, the women at our table started screaming and yelling. The promoter kept staring at all of us, and I suddenly felt super anxious — my thoughts were racing, my vision went weird (colors looked off), and my body just kind of acted on its own.

I rushed between one guy at my table and the promoter, made a triangle/pyramid shape with my hands, looked left and right, and the promoter kind of flinched like I scared him. After that, I moved to the dance floor, started spinning around with my hands out inside a crowd, and then walked back like nothing happened.

It was a really wild moment, and I still don’t understand what caused the screaming or why I acted that way. Has anyone experienced something like this or can explain what might’ve gone on?

@SamuelAnders

Hi! Recently, I visited a coffee shop in my hometown/city and met a group of people my age, late 20s, all sitting at a table, the "cool table," and I noticed that they were there basically every single day during the week. At some point, I started flirting with the most attractive woman and noticed one guy seemed quite upset, but I ignored him. Eventually, he introduced himself, and I told him I'm a CTO of a tech company and had previously worked at Amazon/Microsoft/etc. and attended an Ivy League university. He started looking at my LinkedIn, and I noticed he had a slightly angry expression, seemingly wanting to "compete with me" and behave as if he were my equal. Then, all of a sudden, he began trying to lead me, suggesting I should start my own company and control my own destiny instead of being a CTO. He made excuses for why he didn't get into a good university, saying he only had one extracurricular and that he's not good at BS'ing on essays. It's as if he tried to force me to respect him. I noticed on his LinkedIn that he was laid off from the past four tech jobs he's had since graduating college and is currently on the job market, interviewing at companies but unable to land anything. What are your thoughts on this guy? I felt like he was somehow undermining my confidence/making me feel doubtful. I started programming when I was 8 years old.

That's nice, I guess, but I think we're all more curious to know if you got the phone numbers of the 'cool' girls that interested you at the table.

Hi! Recently, I visited a coffee shop in my hometown/city and met a group of people my age, late 20s, all sitting at a table, the "cool table," and I noticed that they were there basically every single day during the week. At some point, I started flirting with the most attractive woman and noticed one guy seemed quite upset, but I ignored him. Eventually, he introduced himself, and I told him I'm a CTO of a tech company and had previously worked at Amazon/Microsoft/etc. and attended an Ivy League university. He started looking at my LinkedIn, and I noticed he had a slightly angry expression, seemingly wanting to "compete with me" and behave as if he were my equal. Then, all of a sudden, he began trying to lead me, suggesting I should start my own company and control my own destiny instead of being a CTO. He made excuses for why he didn't get into a good university, saying he only had one extracurricular and that he's not good at BS'ing on essays. It's as if he tried to force me to respect him. I noticed on his LinkedIn that he was laid off from the past four tech jobs he's had since graduating college and is currently on the job market, interviewing at companies but unable to land anything. What are your thoughts on this guy? I felt like he was somehow undermining my confidence/making me feel doubtful. I started programming when I was 8 years old.