To the First-Time Founder
On wonder, becoming, and the quiet miracle of starting something new
Last week, my daughter turned four years old.
And as I wrote her birthday letter, full of the awe, hope, and truth I’ve felt watching her grow, I realized something:
Founding a company is not unlike raising a child.
It starts fragile. Unformed. It asks everything of us (and gives something back we didn’t expect). And it teaches us to slow down, to notice, to care more deeply.
So this is a letter for you, the first-time founder. A birthday wish of sorts. For the wild, meaningful, disorienting journey you’ve just begun.
The Big Idea
There’s a quiet miracle happening as your idea is taking shape, and your startup is slowly becoming itself.
You’re asking bigger questions.
You’re moving with more confidence.
You’re starting to speak your truth.
You’re dreaming, no longer just reacting.
And in the process, something else is happening too:
You’re becoming.
You’ve made the leap.
You’ve gone from idea to execution.
You’ve failed, gotten back up, and tried again.
You’ve tested the world—to understand it, not to break it.
You’re learning how to listen.
You’re starting to lead.
You’re looked at the world with wonder again.
And somehow, just by being in it—
You’re making the world better.
What Comes Next
Well, more questions. Deeper thoughts.
New fears. New joys.
You’ll see more of the world.
And the world will start to see more of you.
Your vision will sharpen.
Your voice will carry farther.
You’ll attract people, lose people, disappoint some, and deeply inspire others.
You’ll find things you love most.
You’ll find things you didn’t know were in you.
And you’ll discover that building a company was never just about the company.
It was always about the person you’re becoming.
And What Does the Future Hold?
It holds a founder who is kind, bold, and imaginative.
A founder who knows how to care and how to stand tall.
A founder who stumbles, but always finds their way.
A founder who dreams wildly, and makes others believe in those dreams, too.
There will be hard days.
There will be incredible ones.
There will be change.
There will be growth.
And through it all, there must be a voice, yours or someone else’s, reminding you:
You are never alone.
You are deeply loved (even when it’s not said).
You are already everything you need to be.
To the Founder Just Beginning
If no one’s told you this today:
You should be incredibly proud of yourself.
What you’re doing isn’t easy.
But it’s beautiful.
Keep building.
Keep becoming.
And never forget—what you’re creating may just create a better version of you, too.
With belief,
Yon
P.S.
If this spoke to something in you, forward it to a founder who needs to hear it.
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