GrownUP Founders: What We Carry into the Next Venture

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The second time around, we already know what the journey can cost.

We have experience. We know the nights when our minds keep working, the weight of a decision that affects other people, the closeness that grows between partners and the tension that comes with it. And still, we want to build again.

The question that interests me is what we want to do differently this time.

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What choices will we make now that we know a little more about entrepreneurship—and ourselves?

Will we look for the same partners? What will still make us hungry?

And how will we recognize when we are slipping back into a habit we had hoped to change?

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These were the questions that brought us together for the first GrownUP Founders gathering with LeumiTech.

We wanted to open a conversation about building for the second or third time,

and about the person entering that chapter with everything they have accumulated along the way.

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For me, this is the essence of The Human Founder. Throughout the podcast, I keep returning to the connection between the company we build and the person we become while building it.

When a company closes, is sold or continues without us, that process does not stop. We carry it into our next decision.

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At this gathering, the idea of starting again took on familiar faces. Partners who have remained close friends for years.

Managers stepping into their roles for the first time, bringing boldness with them. Small successes worth pausing to celebrate, even before there is a major outcome to point to.

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I found myself returning to the tension between knowing more and staying open:

drawing on experience without assuming we already have the answer; understanding our strengths well enough to ask for partnership;

choosing work that will still interest us after the initial excitement fades.

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Perhaps this is where the next venture really begins. In the moment when we can honestly ask what we want to build now,

with whom, and what place we want it to have in our lives.

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TAKE AND LEAVE

Take your experience. Leave room for surprise.

‍What we have learned can open new possibilities, even when they look different from the path we took before.

Own your strengths. Be open about where you need others.

‍Partnership also begins with an honest conversation about contributions and expectations.

Keep the hunger.

‍Make room to recognize progress. A deal, a new colleague or a good conversation is part of the journey worth acknowledging.

Choose your people and your purpose again.

Who do we want beside us through difficult periods, and what will give us a reason to keep going?

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About this episode

The conversations with Michal Tsur, Guy Nizan, Iris Shoor, Idan Tendler, Yoav Vilner and Maya Eisen Zafrir, CEO of LeumiTech,
come together in a special episode of The Human Founder, recorded at our GrownUP Founders gathering with LeumiTech.

Listen to the full conversations, recorded in Hebrew

Listen to the episode
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Continue the Conversation

If this conversation resonated with you, we invite you to continue the journey with us:

📩 Join The Human Founder newsletter for deeper reflections, founder stories, and behind-the-scenes insights on leadership, resilience, longevity, and the entrepreneurial journey.

📖 Explore my book, The Human Founder: How to Build a Startup and Stay Alive, where I go deeper into many of the questions at the heart of this conversation: how to sustain ambition over time, navigate the emotional realities of entrepreneurship, and build without losing the human being behind the company.

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