Founder burnout and self sabotage
hi guys
So I am a first time founder, I am developing an AI powered language school(hyper personalised AI tutors with 1;1 classes) and I think rn I am either burnt out or self sabotaging myself.
I started 6 month ago, alone, so initial architecture was built by me. I had a friend who helped me ad hook with AI agents but not more than that, and I could pull off crazy hours like I would work 12 hours straight no break. Since I am not the "technical" profile I found technical cofounder somewhere mid January, somewhere around Christmas and new year I took a winter break fully off, I was like "I will rest and then push harder" well I did, in February we finally launched first version many bugs but working and delivering quality 20 f2f interviews, a lot of feedback a lot of iteration, throughout this time many iterations and now in march next version sent it out to many people 20 new users, only two came back to actually study with the school.
and at this critical moment when users start to at least show up, I cannot force myself to work. I have no energy, no willingness, like I look at this gossip app rn at my uni that hit 1000 users in a month and I just want to cry. so much effort, so many hours, and barely any results. the moment when I need to iterate and push harder I back off and do nothing.
what is it? laziness? hurt ego? self sabotage?
Posted Mar 10, 2026, 11:35 AM UTC