4 Lessons That Helped Me Build Confidence as a Founder

One of the hardest skills I’ve had to develop as a founder was this:

Don’t let other people define your worth.

Over the past 8 years I’ve been a founder, I’ve had customers insult our product – and me for building it.

Investors told me our metrics weren’t strong enough. 

Competitors badmouthed us.

At first, it shook me. I lost confidence, and I started second-guessing everything.

But eventually, I realized something critical.

I needed to start separating external opinions from internal beliefs.

True confidence doesn’t come from praise, traction, or revenue. True confidence comes from within. 

And that changed everything.

Here are four lessons that helped me get there and build lasting confidence.

TLDR

• The goal: Build confidence as a founder, even in the face of criticism and doubt
• The tactic: Strengthen your internal belief through clear thinking and conviction
• The result: Gain resilience and confidence in what you’re doing

Lesson #1: People will doubt you, sometimes harshly

If you’re building something new, you’ll encounter resistance and pushback.

That’s just the risk of launching a startup.

You’ll hear things like:

• “This will never work.”
• “The product’s not ready.”
• “Your team doesn’t have what it takes.”
• “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

Sometimes, it stings because they’re telling you the hard truth. 

But sometimes, it’s just noise, and they’re flat-out wrong. 

During the early days of AXDRAFT, I had demos where people insulted the product. 

One person even told me I must’ve been a terribly sh*tty lawyer if I believed it was possible to automate legal documents.

With AiSDR, I’ve heard similar criticism. 

People say it’s impossible for AI to write quality emails that get meetings booked. Or that AiSDR wasn’t built by “real” salespeople. Some of these claims have escalated after questionable practices by certain industry players.

This stuff happens. And it always will.

It’s what you do next that matters. Do you let the damage linger? Or do you use the vitriol to improve your product?

Lesson #2: The real damage comes from within

It’s not the comment that hurts. It’s how long you let it live in your head.

When I was first starting out, I used to let one harsh comment affect me for days.

What should’ve been a 30-minute sting would end up turning into a 3-day spiral of self-doubt. 

That’s where most of the damage happens.

And it’s where I realize that the real damage isn’t what people say. It’s how long you let it linger.

Learning to control the emotional fallout and shorten the recovery time is one of the most valuable skills a founder can build.

Lesson #3: Conviction is something you can build

Everyone needs an outlet for negative energy and frustration.

For some, it’s the gym. Others, it’s video games.

For me, to keep myself grounded (especially during the hard days), I started writing a personal conviction memo.

Every time I had a new insight, market observation, or reason to believe in what we were doing, I wrote it down.

Over time, that memo became my mental anchor. 

It reminded me:

• Why I started
• Why we’ll win the market
• And why we can’t let doubt define us, even if others don’t see it yet.

And this became my way of taking back control.

Lesson #4: Confidence comes from doing the work

When you’ve spent years thinking deeply about and understanding your space and market, you don’t need external validation.

You end up walking into meetings differently. You speak with clarity, like you know what you’re talking about.

And that’s because you do.

This kind of confidence doesn’t come from hype. It comes from doing the work consistently over time.

It’s steady. And people feel it.

Result

In my case, every idea I work on starts with a memo.

That’s how AXDRAFT was born. 

And that’s how AiSDR was born. 

I had a pain. I envisioned a solution.

And before we had traction, product-market fit, or even revenue, there was a belief. And that belief was written down.

That conviction helped me keep going, even when things were uncertain, or when we were down to our last few hundred dollars before AXDRAFT was accepted into Y Combinator.

If you’re a founder struggling with self-doubt and you haven’t found an outlet, try this:

You’ll be surprised how much stronger – and clearer – you start to feel.