10 Years of a Solo Founder's Journey: Insights from Building a YC-Funded Startup

Overcoming Adversities, Health Issues, Immigration and Legal Battles to Build Resilience, Forge Authentic Connections and Unforeseen Personal Growth

From entering one of the biggest incubators in the world as a solo founder, pivoting, fundraising struggles, achieving profitability, launching multiple markets, facing cancer, building multiple teams, fighting a class action lawsuit, a worldwide crisis, and deploying a full relaunch, this article is a short version of anecdotes and lessons learned along the way.

When life gets tough, it can feel very lonely. You either face it or call it quits. If you don’t give up, you find yourself growing at a rate that you can’t ever imagine and end up building deeper connections than you’d ever expect with people you meet along the way, linked by the bonds of hardship and friendship.

Some Context Before Diving In

Having been constantly reminded by salespeople that I was starting my 10th year as a solo founder (good job on customization!) I got inspired to write this article. This is my way to take the time to look back and share, help, and inspire other solo entrepreneurs who might feel lonely or question their journey. If this helps at least one other person out there, it would have been worth it.

I’ve always been an entrepreneur, solving people’s problems with technology. I moved from France to San Francisco in 2010 and never looked back. I got into Y-Combinator in 2015 with Trackin, a last-mile delivery technology sold to restaurants as a white-label service, and then used it to launch Mobydish, the only full-service catering marketplace available in the US. 

To make it easier and more digestible, I’ve divided the 10 years into 3 articles linked below so you can read whatever seems interesting to you.

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Interested in launching a new project? Read more about what I’ve learned in detail about the first mistakes I made as a solo founder, and/or listen to this podcast on how I went about the journey of growing a marketplace and acquiring supply and demand.

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You’re Not Alone, Let’s Connect!

Thanks to anyone who was able to read the whole thing!
There’s so much more that I’ve learned as a solo founder, but a lot of it is greatly summarized in Sam Altman’s essay. I wish I had more time to share during the journey, but looking at my online activity, you’ll notice I didn’t get many chances to do so. This post is a redemption for not posting earlier.

If you’re feeling lonely out there, want to chat about better ways to go through the journey, or just ask more questions about what I’ve learned, please connect with me! I may not have reached the IPO level yet, but I’ve grown more as a human than I ever thought I would, and I’d love to help others, genuinely. It’s easy to get stuck and feel like we’re the only one facing challenges but life will always feel tough on us, wherever we’re from. We’re all judging a situation based on where we’re coming from, so anything that takes us out of our comfort zone will be felt as potentially painful. The beauty is the more you get out of it, the less you mind facing new challenges.

Whatever project you are working on, I wish you luck, health, resilience, growth, faith, and fun. As I’m often telling myself, at the end of the day, you just gotta learn how to enjoy the journey and lead with your heart, you’re lucky to be alive!