A Founder week in full sprint mode
The pace, the pressure, the exhaustion and the moments that make it all worth it. A week in my life after raising $700k
Dear readers,
After closing our $700k fundraise, which almost broke us, we barely had time to breathe.
We went straight into endless meetings with potential customers, pitch competitions, and conferences all across Europe.
Ever wondered what a typical week looks like for a founder in full sprint mode?
This week’s story will take you there.
Enjoy the ride,
Xaver
In case you missed last week’s story. Check it out here.
We could finally breathe again.
After months of nonstop fundraising, we had closed $700k.
We were exhausted.
Saying the same lines over and over.
Pitching the same slides to the same people.
Answering the same questions hundreds of times.
And not just tired, drained.
Because fundraising means defending yourself constantly:
“Why you?”
“Why this product?”
“Where’s the differentiation?”
When you’re forced to respond to doubt all day, every day, it eats at you.
Back then, $700k felt like a huge win.
We could finally pay ourselves a small salary, get an apartment, and stop leaning on our families for financial support.
The months that followed were a blur of pitching, travel, and conferences.
We joined accelerators.
Competed in pitch competitions.
Some weeks, my other commercial co-founder and I wouldn’t see each other for weeks weeks straight.
We were constantly on the road.
A “typical” week looked like this:
Monday: Back-to-back calls with potential hires and customers, aligning on product vision with my co-founders, invoicing customers, onboarding new tools, and a board call with investors.
Tuesday: Train to Duisburg to meet the customer service team of one of Germany’s biggest banks. Worked from the train, the hotel lobby, anywhere I could find Wi-Fi. Wrapped up late at night.
Wednesday: Early train to Berlin for CCW, the biggest customer service conference in Europe where we had our own booth. Spoke to 50+ prospects. That night, our client O2 Germany won the award for “Most Innovative Technology” powered by our product. Celebrated over dinner with clients.
Thursday: Morning flight to Madrid for the finals of Impact Day. After several pitches, we won a $120k grant for our technology.
Friday–Sunday: Stayed in Madrid because Monday morning I needed to fly to Barcelona to the Telefónica HQ to discuss a global rollout which never happened as they were building their own technology in the background.
Fundraising had been exhausting.
But the real marathon had only just begun.
Some weeks were more positive than negative. Some the other way around.
But the pace was relentless.
I felt like I was trapped in a time machine moving at double speed.
Barely room to breathe.
Barely room for a private life.
My social circle shrank to customers, employees, and co-founders. Eventually, friends stopped inviting me to things, I’d decline anyway.
Even big events like Oktoberfest became just another client meeting.
And yet, I didn’t feel sorry for myself. Not at all.
In my eyes, it was making an impact.
Hiring people so they could pay their rent.
Integrating technology that saved customers time and money.
Things were moving. Lives, not just ours, were changing.
There were moments most people only dream about:
A private dinner with the French President.
Speaking in St. Petersburg for the UNWTO, in a room full of delegates from every corner of the globe.
Standing on stages in front of hundreds multiple times.
Traveling to dozens of countries never visited before.
All within a short span of time.
Yes, it was draining. And yes, a social life disappeared.
But nothing about it felt worth trading away.
It was thrilling like a game where every week brought new skills, new wins, and a higher level to conquer.
Did I still have doubts that it would all work out?
Absolutely. Every single week, perhaps even day.
And I think that’s just part of being human.
We’re wired to scan for danger, to look for the cracks in the foundation, to imagine what could go wrong.
No matter how many wins you stack up, you’re never fully secure.
All it takes is one critical email, one deal falling through, one offhand comment from an investor and the doubts creep back in.
You learn to live with that tension.
In the meantime, our office space grew.
We’d hired interns, working students, and full-time employees.
The once-empty room with a couple of desks now buzzed with energy whiteboards covered in scribbles, coffee cups scattered between laptops, the constant hum of people building something that felt bigger than all of us.
It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t calm.
But every day, we could see the momentum building and we were hooked.
We were still a long way from “making it,” but in those moments, it felt like we were exactly where we were supposed to be.
Stay tuned.
Go to next article here.
“If you’re a founder and need help regarding fundraising, go-to-market or any other topic you are struggling with, I work with a small number of founders 1:1. You can learn more here.”
