After selling our previous business, I didn't expect to feel this much pressure around money again. Then I started building Clipflow and Agape at the same time.
The retreat was expensive to build. We believed in it and committed heavily. A lot of money was going out before the operation could open and bring money in.
I said in September that I hadn't felt that poor in a long time. I was describing the feeling of funding new businesses, even after an exit. An asset balance didn't make the outgoing bills feel comfortable.
In the earlier business, we had money coming in while we built. That gave the work a different rhythm. There were difficult decisions, but an operating business was helping fund what came next.
This time, we were starting again. The expenses were very visible, and income from the new projects was still developing. For someone who dislikes spending money, that was hard to stomach.
It made the difference between owning assets and having regular cash coming in feel very real. I could look at what we'd invested in and still feel the pressure of the next bill.
I don't think a previous exit makes you immune to that feeling. Put the money into another project, and you're back with an ordinary founder concern: when does the work start paying for itself?
That experience has kept my attention on the operating business we're trying to build. I want something that can keep going on its own income, rather than rely indefinitely on what happened last time.
