288: Why you shouldn't become a tech founder

Starting a tech company sounds exciting: autonomy, upside, the chance to build something meaningful.

The reality is tougher.

Startups demand constant decision-making with incomplete information, emotional resilience, financial sacrifice, and the ability to withstand rejection from investors, customers, and even family.

In this episode, Sophia Matveeva delivers a clear-eyed reality check on tech entrepreneurship.

She breaks down why the path isn’t right for most people, what founders underestimate, and the traits that actually predict long-term success.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Why building a tech startup is far more brutal than most founders admit
• How to know if you’re genuinely built for uncertainty, rejection, and pressure
• The hidden lifestyle tradeoffs that make many founders quit too early
• How to decide if tech entrepreneurship is your path — or a costly mistake

Resources from this Episode

Free AI Mini-Workshop for Non-Technical Founders

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Get free access here: techfornontechies.co/aiclass

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TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Sophia Matveeva: I'm about to tell you why you should not build a tech startup, and I mean it. This is not reverse psychology. This is not some motivational speech where I say it's hard, but you can do it at the end. This is me genuinely telling you if any of what I'm about to say sounds awful to you, then do not do this.

[00:00:18] Go do something else. There are easier ways to make money, but if what I'm about to describe sounds hard and also kind of exciting and it makes you want to have the challenge, then maybe you should do this. But I want you to do it with your eyes open. Today we're talking about why most people should not become tech founders.

[00:00:38] So let's, so let's get into it.

[00:00:45] Hello and welcome to the Tech Phon Techie Podcast. I'm your host, Sophia Matava. If you're a non-technical founder building a tech product or adding AI to your business, you are in the right base. Each week you'll get practical strategies. Step-by-step playbooks and real world case studies to help you launch and scale a tech business without learning to code.

[00:01:10] And this is not another startup show full of jargon, venture capital, theater or tech bro bravado. Here we focus on building useful products that make money without height. I'm without code. I've written for the Harvard Business Review and lectured at Oxford London Business School and Chicago Booth. So you are in safe pads.

[00:01:30] I've also helped hundreds of founders, both from concept to scalable product, and now it's your turn. So let's dive in. Hello, smart people. How are you today? I'm recording this for you in January. When there's still this new year, new you, enthusiasm and people are still at the gym and lots of people want to start a new venture this year or change their careers, and this is a great thing because this is how we evolve and grow and have more interesting lives, but.

[00:02:00] If one of the things that you're considering is launching a tech venture, then I want you to have your eyes open. I want you to know the trades offs and then decide whether this is something you genuinely want to do. Tech entrepreneurship is really fashionable right now, and I think this is why some people get seduced into doing it.

[00:02:17] Then actually start the work, then realize how hard it is and the challenges, and then quit. And I would rather. That you knew the costs upfront, so then you could make an informed decision. So here are four reasons for why you should absolutely not try to build a tech startup. First reason not to do this is that it's really, really hard, and I don't mean it's like, oh, it's challenging but rewarding.

[00:02:43] Kind of like a good gym class. I mean that you will have to do things that you've never done before. All the time, constantly and with no instruction manual. And even if you join a program like Techon Technical Founders, yes, we help you, but we can't solve all of your problems. We can't give you a manual for every single thing.

[00:03:03] And also you will face a lot of rejection. Investors will say, no. Customers will say, your product is confusing. Developers will tell you that your idea is impossible or that it takes ages and lots of money to build your friends. We'll ask you if you're going to get a real job, or definitely your mom will, and also you'll make mistakes in public.

[00:03:23] Your first version will be embarrassing. It might not work. It might crash. Your test version might crash. When you are on a stage presenting it to investors, you'll send emails with typos to really important people. You'll pitch to the wrong investors. You'll be laughed outta the room and you'll definitely hire some wrong people and then you'll have to fire them, which always feels awful.

[00:03:45] And you will always be worried about running out of money. Even when things are going well, there's this constant background hum of, okay, well this is good, but what about the next time we can make payroll this month, but what about next month? Or what if this customer cancels? You know, you get this contract and you're like, this is great, but now we're really dependent on them.

[00:04:07] What if the funding falls through and sometimes the funding does fall through. I have seen this happen and so. When you are running a tech startup, your entire quest is survival. You are not going to dominate the market in year one. You are basically just trying not to die. And if you are the leader, then you often have to kind of present this calm, confident game face to everybody else because you as the leader, you have to absorb the stress.

[00:04:39] Yes, you absorb the opportunities, but. You pay for those opportunities with stress and hard work. And so as the leader, you know, you are kind of like a swan, graceful and calm on the outside, but inside you're thinking, okay, I'm trying to make it to the next funding round, or I'm trying to make it to the next corporate contract, or I'm trying to get us to the next month of revenue.

[00:04:59] This is not like hustle culture, Instagram post. This is genuinely hard. Like you have to do a lot of work and it's mentally and emotionally draining. And some people like doing hard things. Just because they're hard. Some people like doing hard things because they want to prove to themselves that they can, or they want to prove to, I don't know, their favorite grandparent, whatever.

[00:05:23] If that's you, if you have done hard things before just because you knew that there were hard, then this might be the right path for you. But if you don't already have a track record of doing difficult things. This is not the right place to start. Starting a tech venture is not for beginners. The people who succeed have already overcome challenges.

[00:05:45] And they could be personal challenges, they could be professional challenges. Actually, it's both. So if you've had a dreadful childhood with mean parents. Come on in. Usually people who succeed in creating a tech venture, they've built something from nothing before, and that doesn't, you know, sometimes that means a business or it could mean a great career.

[00:06:09] It could also mean building themselves up after something terrible has happened. So they failed at something and then they got back up and they've done the thing that has scared them. So if your life has been relatively smooth and you are looking for your first big challenge, then start somewhere else.

[00:06:27] Build a side business, run a marathon, do something else that's kind of on the ladder of difficulty. Work your way up because tech startups. We'll test every part of you. They'll test you intellectually. They'll test you emotionally, and they'll just test you physically because there is a lot you need to get done.

[00:06:48] And so if you've never been tested before, you won't know if you can handle this level of testing until you're about 50, $50,000 in. So if you are still listening, I haven't yet put you off. I've got three more reasons. The second reason not to do this is that you have to make a lot of decisions. You have to do so quickly and you have to do so with incomplete information.

[00:07:11] And so let me tell you about a founder or actually an aspiring founder that I spoke to recently. He was debating between two startup ideas, and both seemed reasonable, both had potential. But you know, aside from really kind of just researching the market, going to a few startup events and reading a few articles, he hadn't really been doing anything, so I couldn't say to him, okay, which one is better?

[00:07:34] Because, which just didn't have the information. And he'd been thinking about this for months. So my advice to him was just pick one. Doesn't matter. Just pick one of the 2 50 50 chance. Give yourself two months to go all in on that idea. Test the market, build a test product. Go to your target customers, get real feedback, and then at the end of two months.

[00:07:56] You are gonna know what to do at the end of this process, you'll have actual data on what to do next, and you'll have data from the market. And you'll also figure out, do I want to do this? Does this float my boat? And if it turns out that this option was not the right thing, then try the other idea.

[00:08:14] Either way, two months in, you'll be further ahead than if you just carry on deliberating and thinking, should I do this, should I do that? I don't know. And you know what he did? He literally chose to carry on deliberating, and I bet you that in two months he's gonna be in exactly the same place as he is today.

[00:08:34] He's gonna be talking about his ideas, going to start up events, 'cause you know, it's kind of cool and fun reading articles and so on. And if this is you. You either need to start working or stop talking, because in the startup world, we see people like this all the time, and you just don't get taken seriously.

[00:08:53] And this is a really, really good way to essentially ruin your professional information, to ruin your professional reputation. Okay? Maybe not ruin, but basically not really be taken seriously. And I know that this sounds harsh, but that's the point because honestly, in a tech startup, you will never have complete information.

[00:09:13] You'll never have certainty. And if you are waiting for 100% certainty, if you're waiting until you're 100% sure you are going to wait forever, you have to be comfortable making decisions with 60% of the information or 40% of the information. And you know, it's sometimes on gut feel. You have to be able to. I think this is right.

[00:09:35] I'm going to commit, and if I'm wrong, I'll course correct. Now, the reason why this works is that you don't say, I'm going to commit for the rest of my life. You say, I'm going to commit for a certain amount of time, like I told this founder. Two months, commit two months to doing this. And he was working full-time.

[00:09:52] So it's like a, you know, it's a part-time commitment for two months. This is not a big ask, so I'm going to commit for a certain amount of time, or I'm going to commit a certain amount of money to test this out. And then. If it's not working out or I don't want to do it, that's fine. I will know. So if you are the kind of person who needs to analyze everything from every angle before you act, you will drown in this world.

[00:10:17] There are other jobs for people with that kind of mindset. And actually, I'm thinking of somebody I know he is a chief investment officer in a hedge fund, and they kind of have this. Collegiate decision making. They have like this investment committee process about how they invest in companies and they take ages and they do loads and loads of research before they make a decision.

[00:10:37] Now that's an interesting job. Um, he's a clever guy and he makes lots of money, so that's the right kind of job for this kind of person. Tech entrepreneurship would be absolutely dreadful for him. Okay, so if making fast decisions with incomplete data is paralyzing to you, do not do this. Okay. Third reason not to start a tech venture is that your sensible friends and your family will tell you to get a proper job.

[00:11:10] And they'll meanwhile, and they'll say things like, oh, well darling, this is a lovely idea, but what about your career? Or, I just think you're too smart to be taking this kind of risk. So let me tell you. I started my first tech venture when I was at business school, and I lied to my mother for the first year of working on it.

[00:11:32] And imagine I had worked in a private equity firm before, and then I went to the University of Chicago for my MBA. So my mother had bragging rights. She was like my clever daughter. She's successful. And then after her MBA, she's gonna work at this big company and all of these things. I ruined it. So I knew what kind of reaction she would have if I told her that I'd smashed all of that up and decided to launch a tech venture with no experience and no money.

[00:12:02] And yet this is what I did. So I literally said that I, I literally told my mother that I worked for one of our. In their family office. So one of our investors is this very impressive woman who has a family office, and I said that I, that's where I was working, which. I mean has a link to the truth. Let's just say it's a link.

[00:12:24] Very tenuous link to the truth. Anyway, so eventually I told her, and of course her reaction was, well, if you want to be in tech, my dear, why don't you try for a job at Google? And you know what this question, why don't you get a job at Google? Why don't you get a job at Facebook? This question has been going on for years and it still does, and I have literally signed six figure contracts with government for tech, quantum techies programs.

[00:12:49] But my mother would still rather that I get a normal job. This is actually. Fairly normal. I'm not the only person who's gone through this. The bottom line is if you need constant external validation, if you need your parents to be proud, if you want your friends to think you're impressive, your colleagues to respect your choices, you will struggle with the early stages of tech entrepreneurship.

[00:13:16] Yes. Now I get. You know, invitations to speak at things I've written for the Harvard Business Review for the FT and so on, and like now I have the accolades and I have lots of external validation, but it took, like it didn't, it didn't come straight away. It took hard work. So if you need constant external validation, then just be aware that this is not going to give that to you straight away.

[00:13:43] And if you can't handle that, then don't do it. Okay. Here is my fourth and last big reason for you not to start a tech venture. And this is important. Basically, you will not earn well from this for a while. And if you are used to a fat corporate salary and you use your corporate salary on living really well, so you have fancy dinners and expensive trips and beautiful clothes, you'll have to cut that.

[00:14:12] And this is a sacrifice, and it's not fun. Like I've made that sacrifice. I did not enjoy it. And so you have to be willing to make the sacrifice. And if you are not willing to make the sacrifice, this is not for you. And I've seen people leave six figure jobs to build tech startups and you know, they are excited about it.

[00:14:32] They've done all the research and you know, they're smart people. This is why they have this well paying job. And they're good at managing the psychological shift because they're excited about the challenge and they, and they believe in their idea. But the reality of life without that paycheck really sets in and it's unpleasant.

[00:14:52] So you know when they can't go on the ski trip that their friends are planning or they're used to going to certain types of restaurants and now they basically have to downgrade. Then suddenly the whole thing feels kind of like punishment instead of pursuit. And if you are not willing to downgrade your lifestyle, even temporarily, you will really resent this journey.

[00:15:16] And when you resent it, you'll quit. And don't think that, oh, I'm going to raise money and it's gonna be fine. Because at the. Earlier stages, you know, until even, even when you're raising series A, you are not going to be getting paid a really big salary because investors essentially, they very rightly think.

[00:15:37] That they want you to have some of the risk because, so you'll have a salary that's definitely enough for you to live on, you know, if you're raising Series A and so on. But it's not going to be the same as a big, fat corporate salary that you could get in a consultancy, in advertising, or in a bank, because the whole point is that you monetize either when you exit or you monetize when you get those.

[00:16:01] Big contracts and then you can have some of that profit sharing. So basically, if cutting back sounds unbearable to you, then don't do it. So basically, I've spent some time telling you why you should not build a tech venture. So if you're still listening, you might be thinking, well, who should? So here is the pattern that I have seen and remember, about 700 people have now gone through my program.

[00:16:27] So I have seen this and I've also been an advisor at the top accelerators and to investors and so on. So I've seen some patterns. The people who succeed in tech entrepreneurship are people who have done hard things before and they want to do another hard thing. There are also people who can make decisions quickly and live with uncertainty.

[00:16:47] Doesn't mean they enjoy the uncertainty, but it means that they can handle it. And another characteristic is that people who succeed in tech startups do not need everybody to understand or approve of their choices. So it's this kind of like stepping away from the tribe. And also it's people who are willing to sacrifice income and comfort for a period of time because they care more about the outcome.

[00:17:14] They care more about what they're building in the long term rather than short term lifestyle choices. And if this is you, if all of what I said appeals to you, then try tech entrepreneurship, like I think it's interesting. I think it's one of the most. Interesting things with the biggest upside that you can have right now.

[00:17:38] But an interesting life with a huge financial upside also comes with the cost that I've told you about. So this is the trade off that I want you to seriously consider. And if the things, even if one of the things that I described. To make you think that, oh my God, this sounds awful. Then don't do this because it is awful and there is no shame in thinking this is too much.

[00:18:02] I don't want this for my life. Building a tech startup is not the only way to have a meaningful career. Or to make a lot of money. But if you're still here and you're thinking, okay, this sounds hard, but I still want to do it, then you're in the right place. This show is specifically for non-technical founders who want to build tech ventures.

[00:18:23] So this is for the really ambitious people who really like doing very hard things. And now I've given you a real look at why it is not a good idea. For you to go down this path. And if you are still going to go down this path, then I'm here to support you because we're the same kind of crazy. But honestly, seriously, think about what I've said, reflect on it, and then honestly decide whether this is what you really want.

[00:18:47] And on that note, I wish you a wonderful day, and I shall be back in your delight next week. Ciao.