theeducator
New member
I’m a non-technical founder for context
I am an ex-founder and CEO who started two companies and had a decent run working and building for 8+ years. My first company sold for very little and the second one we raised several million in seed funding. We sold the biz where the founders again didn’t walk away with much given a heavy pref stack and exit was close to what we raised.
I’m 26 and didn’t finish university. I had 8 courses left and now have decided to return and finish part-time (taking the remaining classes evening and weekends).
I’m struggling to figure out what to do next. I’m burnt out even though it’s been a year since the exit. I don’t have the capacity or interest to be a CEO again for a while and instead want to work and learn from more experienced individuals.
I initially had high expectations and interviewed for more senior roles but didn’t see a ton of success. For context I’ve applied to 150 roles and only heard back via cold applying to 1 job. Through my network I’ve had some success and interviewed for another 8-10 positions where I got to the final stages of 7 roles but never closed given the same feedback. “They need more domain expertise ie someone who only did partnerships, or PM only, etc.”
The areas/roles I’ve interviewed for include roles like Chief of Staff, Strategy, Product Management, VC Associate/Senior Associate and Partnership roles. But after 4 months of searching nothing has come to fruition. I’ve readjusted my focus to being open to more junior opportunities as well. But no luck either sadly given I constantly get I’m over qualified for the roles.
Given my role as a CEO and all the things I did are not directly transferable I’ve seen recruiters just skip over my resume. In general aside from startups I also have few other strong experiences but they are very specific or general in strategy. Many times I’ve gotten that’d I’d just leave or this is just part time thing. But that’s not the case I’m really optimizing for learning and somewhat compensation given I have some large financial commitments I need to be able to afford (Indian marriage in a year, partner going to med school, and aging parents that can’t work as much). I have no issues putting in 80-100 hours but I want to be somewhere I can learn a ton and have exponential growth in my learning.
I tried starting my own innovation consulting firm and had some initial success but I found the work mundane, lonely and boring. Further, it again takes time to start something new and given the financial commitments I do need an income soon and don’t have the time horizon to wait 3-6 months to reap the benefits therefore focusing on finding full time work mostly.
I have a strong network of people I know who are founders and CEOs of unicorns, and in general a vast network that I am struggling to mobilize (these are important and valuable connections and simply reaching out saying I need a job doesn’t reflect well. I’m saving any asks for future ventures given these were tough relationships to come by). I am not looking for any special treatment and therefore have made sure not to exploit my network and will only work if I can be of value to the company in that role.
I have an exceptional skillset of solving hard problems, ideating new business ideas and drilling down on figuring out the 0-1 of a business, I can easily raise millions but don’t want to become a network for others to exploit. I tried breaking into VC but given I’m a Canadian, the VC landscape here is brutal and moving to the US isn’t an option at least for the next 18 months.
My background is in banking, fintech, healthcare, marketplaces, payments, retail, government, and nonprofits. My expertise lies in strategy, partnerships, operations, fundraising, financial planning, go-to-market strategies, and scaling.
I have a proven track record of recruiting and leading high-performing teams but just don’t know how to apply this (at our peak we were 40 FTEs).
I get overlooked also largely due to my age even though I have over a decade of experience given I started very young as a founder.
What should I do next and how should I go about finding or convincing others to make a role for me? I had initial success creating a strategy role for myself at a large multibillion dollar bank last year but that was short-lived given the bank lied about a lot of things and therefore I left that role.
Would love some advice?
Feeling lost, lonely and highly depressed and feeling like I lack a sense of purpose. I
I am optimizing for having a decent salary to recoup my bank balance, wanting to be somewhere or doing something that has an impact, want to work with A-star players and finally feel like I’m learning a ton.
Where should I focus my time and effort while looking for my next opportunity? Focus has been full time work but if I find a few fractional gigs that would be awesome too but the uncertainty makes that a challenge right now.
What roles does an ex-CEO do after they don’t walk away with a lot from those startups?
I am an ex-founder and CEO who started two companies and had a decent run working and building for 8+ years. My first company sold for very little and the second one we raised several million in seed funding. We sold the biz where the founders again didn’t walk away with much given a heavy pref stack and exit was close to what we raised.
I’m 26 and didn’t finish university. I had 8 courses left and now have decided to return and finish part-time (taking the remaining classes evening and weekends).
I’m struggling to figure out what to do next. I’m burnt out even though it’s been a year since the exit. I don’t have the capacity or interest to be a CEO again for a while and instead want to work and learn from more experienced individuals.
I initially had high expectations and interviewed for more senior roles but didn’t see a ton of success. For context I’ve applied to 150 roles and only heard back via cold applying to 1 job. Through my network I’ve had some success and interviewed for another 8-10 positions where I got to the final stages of 7 roles but never closed given the same feedback. “They need more domain expertise ie someone who only did partnerships, or PM only, etc.”
The areas/roles I’ve interviewed for include roles like Chief of Staff, Strategy, Product Management, VC Associate/Senior Associate and Partnership roles. But after 4 months of searching nothing has come to fruition. I’ve readjusted my focus to being open to more junior opportunities as well. But no luck either sadly given I constantly get I’m over qualified for the roles.
Given my role as a CEO and all the things I did are not directly transferable I’ve seen recruiters just skip over my resume. In general aside from startups I also have few other strong experiences but they are very specific or general in strategy. Many times I’ve gotten that’d I’d just leave or this is just part time thing. But that’s not the case I’m really optimizing for learning and somewhat compensation given I have some large financial commitments I need to be able to afford (Indian marriage in a year, partner going to med school, and aging parents that can’t work as much). I have no issues putting in 80-100 hours but I want to be somewhere I can learn a ton and have exponential growth in my learning.
I tried starting my own innovation consulting firm and had some initial success but I found the work mundane, lonely and boring. Further, it again takes time to start something new and given the financial commitments I do need an income soon and don’t have the time horizon to wait 3-6 months to reap the benefits therefore focusing on finding full time work mostly.
I have a strong network of people I know who are founders and CEOs of unicorns, and in general a vast network that I am struggling to mobilize (these are important and valuable connections and simply reaching out saying I need a job doesn’t reflect well. I’m saving any asks for future ventures given these were tough relationships to come by). I am not looking for any special treatment and therefore have made sure not to exploit my network and will only work if I can be of value to the company in that role.
I have an exceptional skillset of solving hard problems, ideating new business ideas and drilling down on figuring out the 0-1 of a business, I can easily raise millions but don’t want to become a network for others to exploit. I tried breaking into VC but given I’m a Canadian, the VC landscape here is brutal and moving to the US isn’t an option at least for the next 18 months.
My background is in banking, fintech, healthcare, marketplaces, payments, retail, government, and nonprofits. My expertise lies in strategy, partnerships, operations, fundraising, financial planning, go-to-market strategies, and scaling.
I have a proven track record of recruiting and leading high-performing teams but just don’t know how to apply this (at our peak we were 40 FTEs).
I get overlooked also largely due to my age even though I have over a decade of experience given I started very young as a founder.
What should I do next and how should I go about finding or convincing others to make a role for me? I had initial success creating a strategy role for myself at a large multibillion dollar bank last year but that was short-lived given the bank lied about a lot of things and therefore I left that role.
Would love some advice?
Feeling lost, lonely and highly depressed and feeling like I lack a sense of purpose. I
I am optimizing for having a decent salary to recoup my bank balance, wanting to be somewhere or doing something that has an impact, want to work with A-star players and finally feel like I’m learning a ton.
Where should I focus my time and effort while looking for my next opportunity? Focus has been full time work but if I find a few fractional gigs that would be awesome too but the uncertainty makes that a challenge right now.
What roles does an ex-CEO do after they don’t walk away with a lot from those startups?
this kind of philosophy is very interesting to me.