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September 22, 2025
When I was growing up my dad used to sit in front of the tv Indian style in his white tank top and pager on the ground next to him after me and my brothers went to bed.
He’s an action movie junkie so we saw every type of action move from Bravehart to Lion Hart to every Jackie Chan movie ever made.
And as the only daughter of 5 kids, I was indoctrinated to these movies just like my brothers. I really had no choice.
Well, in 1993, Jurassic Park came out. I was 6.
And you guessed it, he took me and my 2 older brothers to see it in theatres.
We had to leave when Laura Dern was in the basement trying to turn the power on because when the dinosaur popped out, I screamed in the theatre.
It’s a core memory for me. I remember being in the hallway and my dad trying to calm me down. We ended up leaving, and then he went back to the later showing with my brothers again.
Fast forward to 2:45 for a remembrance:
Anyway, I went on to love all the Jurassic Park movies as I grew up.
But memory serves a purpose. When I’m highly anxious, or stressed about something out of my control, I will turn these movies on after the kids go to bed.
I’m watching Jurassic World Dominion right now. And I already feel calmer.
Not to bring this back to startups, but hey that’s why we’re here.
Stress in startups can break a founder. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve feared it happening to me.
Like, what is my breaking point? Do I have one? I have to, everyone does, but what is it?
Building a company is stressful. Especially when you’re an overachiever and put extra pressure on yourself to perform (raise ya hand if that hits!).
I’ve read stories of founders that were almost running out of money, couldn’t make payroll, had to borrow money from family, but somehow, some way, they pulled through.
They turned those companies into multi-million dollar empires.
Which makes me wonder, do we HAVE to go through something like that to be great?
Can we be great without having to almost shut down and rise from the ashes?
How did those founders not break? What made them keep going?
I don’t know any of those answers.
But I know that right now in history is the best time to start a company.
The tools, the resources, the opportunities available are endless right now.
It really just comes down to: which founders are going to follow through and which ones won’t quit when the stress, anxiety, and pressure get to be too much?
I built Theanna to make it easier for women to get started.
But it’s still hard. It always will be hard. And I can't make it less stressful even if I tried.
But if I can help more women get past validation and to MVP, I think we will start to see more startups growing and withstanding more of that pressure.
I could be wrong, but I’m going to do my damndest to find out.
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