The Honest Founder

The Honest Founder

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My Founder Journey

#20 What freedom really means.
Life after 7 years of ups and downs layoffs, burnout and a $60m exit.
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Xaver Lehmann
#19 The time I had to fire almost the entire team.
The untold reality and insights behind our acquisition, and the layoffs that followed.
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Xaver Lehmann
#18 Recovering from Burnout.
The slow and messy process nobody prepares you for.
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Xaver Lehmann
#17 What nobody tells you after an exit.
The part of the story founders rarely talk about.
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Xaver Lehmann
#16 Walking away from a $60m deal.
Inbetween grief, hope and silence.
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Xaver Lehmann
#15 The darkest days of being a founder.
COVID, M&A and a tragic loss that changed my life.
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Xaver Lehmann
#14 From record growth to pivoting into the unknown.
Why survival isn’t about optimizing what works, but having the courage to destroy and rebuild.
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Xaver Lehmann
#13 From burnout to purpose: Why I walked away from my startup to find freedom.
When work stops feeling like an obligation and starts feeling like a calling.
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Xaver Lehmann
#12 We walked away from $100,000 and it saved our Business.
Why firing customers can be the smartest move you ever make.
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Xaver Lehmann
#11 How losing focus can be a silent killer.
We thought global expansion was growth and opportunity. Instead it was chaos.
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Xaver Lehmann
#10 How we pivoted from consulting to $1M recurring software revenues.
How we built, sold, and scaled our way to $1M ARR.
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Xaver Lehmann
#9 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.
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Xaver Lehmann
© 2025 Xaver Lehmann
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