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Diary of a Delulu CEO
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If you are smart and unapologetically ambitious yet struggling to find your purpose and understand the role your career plays in your life, then this series is for you! I’m breaking down my deepest inner thoughts, storytimes, and lessons learned from my experience getting my dream job, quitting it, fully rediscovering myself, and ultimately becoming the literal CEO of my own company! And you bet I had to be delulu to get it all done 😉 

You can follow along here!

Comment on Ep 1 with a 🤎 emoji + what type of content you want to see from me in this series! The first 100 people who comment will be entered to receive $150 of beauty/wellness products + a secret gift!!! Good luck!

_{ENTREPNUERSHIP & VENTURE CAPITAL}

🛠️ Build Gen She With Me

Does Big Tech make you wealthy?

Yes and no. It actually depends on who you are.

And this wasn’t obvious to me for a long time. It actually took leaving Big Tech, starting a venture-backed software company, and pivoting into media to fully understand this.

There’s a famous tweet by Naval Ravikant that actually captures the essence of this topic pretty well.

And Big Tech is the closest thing to owning a guaranteed stake in a business (you get stock alongside salary), so you’re not just renting out your time, but you’re actually investing that into a growing asset as well. This asset can be worth a lot more or a lot less, depending on the company you work at.

Startups are the second closest thing. The risk is exponentially higher, but so is the reward if that ends up working out. Many people don’t prefer this route because the hours are super rough, and as an employee, you have little upside in a business that has “potential future value.”

But nothing beats 100% ownership, of course. Not only 100% ownership of your company, but also 100% ownership of your time — deciding when you work, what you get to work on, and who you work with.

So why doesn’t everyone choose this route?

I actually think it’s because of the over-glamorization of tech startup founders that raise 100s of millions of dollars in venture rounds. It feels daunting, overwhelming, and very gatekept! We forget that there are so many other types of companies (or even side hustles!) that can be bootstrapped to help you achieve the financial freedom that you’re looking for.

So, let’s explore different types of companies you can start and who should be starting them…

Service Businesses (Bootstrapped)

These businesses focus on providing services, such as consulting or agency work. The most common example is media, paying for a piece of content/advertisement in exchange for access to your audience. The more channels you have (i.e. IG, YouTube, newsletter, etc.), the more streams of income you can have. In a tech company, the way you would scale and grow is through software, but in this case, you as a person are a finite resource with finite time, so you have to scale with other people — investing in talent and having ownership in their business so they can create more services (i.e. content) in exchange for money. Additionally, you can launch several companies (i.e. merch, courses, agencies, physical goods, etc.) and leverage the audience to launch even more income streams.

Level of Difficulty: Reaching $1M can be relatively straightforward as long as you keep putting yourself out there and being consistent. Yes, you gotta hustle in the beginning with $0 in your pocket, but all you really need is a phone and internet to start a bootstrapped business today, so in theory, your upfront costs to get started should be minimal. On the other hand, it's extremely difficult to get to $100M, as service businesses are not simple to scale. You have to launch a lot of sub-companies and invest in a lot of talent. All of that is extremely hard to get right without burning all the cash that you worked super hard to earn from 0 at the start.

Choosing this over Big Tech? If you're happy with a smaller, lifestyle-oriented business, this is often a much more lucrative path than having a tech job! However, you must absolutely love making content all day, every day!!! The number of people who know about you and want to do business with you, regardless if you’re a media company or not, is going to boil down to your continuous awareness online. No viral content = no sales. A lot of people aren’t huge fans of social media, so in that case, Big Tech is actually a better choice and a much more likely financial return for the life you want.

🤫 P.S. If you haven’t heard, I just started a new business! I can’t say what it is yet, but I used doola to form my company documents. It took care of EVERYTHING for me, and I did it all in <5min! Try it out for yourself here, or you can even schedule a free consultation with them to discuss taxes, strategy, and more.

Tech Co’s (Venture Backed)

This model is pretty obvious: you build software and raise venture money from investors. Because software scales indefinitely, you just need money, in the beginning, to get it off the ground, and once you hit product market fit, it scales itself. Venture funds only make returns if your business can hit a $1B valuation, so they’re really looking for products that can grow without having to spend more money as they scale.

Level of Difficulty: It is SO SO SO much harder to get to $1M in revenue and achieve product-market fit as a venture-backed company than a lifestyle business. However, if you can do that, all you have to do is hit plug and play and repeatedly sell that software to millions of people, arguably going from $1M to $100M in revenue much easier. Don’t forget, while it’s easier to have money in your pocket in the beginning by raising a few million from investors pre-revenue, this money is not contributing to your future financial independence! It’s company money and is used to pay engineers to build your product.

Choosing this over Big Tech? Building a profitable tech startup and actually coming out the other side with financial upside is actually so hard. I don’t recommend this to anyone unless you literally 1. are obviously obsessed with software AND 2. literally would rather die than have a corporate job. I am NOT exaggerating. The number of iterations you will have to go through with little to no reward for years, if not decades, can only be endured if you actually genuinely feel like there’s no possibility of you working a corporate job. While I personally fit the bill for #2, I don’t fit the bill for #1, making a lifestyle business a better path for me right now. And I wish I had known this earlier before spending months and a ton of money on trying to build a tech company last year. On the contrary, if #1 resonates with you and not #2, I would encourage you to pursue Big Tech instead. I can’t see you making it out successfully unless you want it as badly as I described. It truly is the surest way to have financial upside with the least amount of risk. Personally, I don’t recommend joining a startup. My philosophy is that if I have to put that much work into something, I might as well put 10% more and earn a greater upside via a lifestyle business that I own 100% of; however, I’m an extremist, and I know many people who find the in-between of having a little bit more equity upside in a company more motivating and more fulfilling in their day to day life.

Ultimately, it's crucial to be genuine and introspective when considering your career. Don’t do things for clout or societal expectations. Don’t blindly set forth on a 10-year career without truly understanding the tradeoffs and financial upsides between these options. At the end of the day, you’re going to be the one that has to live with those choices. Personally, for me, a lifestyle business is where I can find the greatest fulfillment and highest return of money on my time while building the financial independence and (hopefully later on) generational wealth that I’m looking to create in my life. I hope that this post can help you find similar clarity in your life that I took one decade of exploring before I was able to figure it out! As always, I’m here for you on this journey. Don’t hesitate to DM me on IG if you’re looking for any guidance! ❤️

 💰️ Mom, I Am a Rich Man
_{An interview series uncovering the stories and strategies of badass women on a quest to find richness in health and wealth.}

Michelle Yin (28)
Michelle Yin is the co-founder and CTO of Verse — a mobile creation platform for Gen Z. Previously, she built 2 consumer music apps (Discz and Recs) that have topped the app store charts around the world. Michelle graduated from USC and was previously a senior software engineer at Meta.

1. How did you secure your first investor? A few months after launching Discz as a passion project, I woke up one day to find Discz at the top of the app store music charts. That day, one of my directors at Meta said, you need to pursue this full-time, and if you do, I'll cut you a check! That was the day everything changed, and I decided to take the leap and become a founder.

2. How much do you make? Just enough to pay my bills and afford to live in NYC. Not enough to have savings right now.

3. Best money advice you’ve ever received? Set up your direct deposits so that X% of your paycheck goes to a savings account every month, and pretend like that money never even hit your bank account!

4. What’s one non-negotiable for your mental health? Get moving every morning, even if that means a light stretch and a steam before work!

Consistent peak performance is challenging and requires a foundation of mental wellness. By adopting self-care practices with a licensed therapist, you ensure sustained energy levels, focus, and productivity to maintain high levels of performance over the long haul.

Mental health challenges are a normal part of life, and so is asking for help.

🤝 Invest With Me
_{Turns out you don’t need to be crazy rich to own a piece of the trillions of dollars that flow through the tech industry every year! Wefunder is a platform that allows anyone to invest as little as $100 into startups, and each week, I’ll be sharing one company that I’m investing in with you!}

ZenniHome is transforming the $2T US housing market with robotic smart homes

✨ Robotic furniture removes the need for fixed floor plans (i.e. making more use of the home with less space)

✨ CEO has already had 2 IPOs and founded SkyMall

✨  Planing an IPO in 3-5 years (often founders won’t even call out their exit plans)

_{RESOURCES + JOBS}

Don’t miss these 👀

^CAREER

🤝 Looking to break into venture capital, build your network, and get equity in startups without spending your own money? Apply to be a Gen She VC Scout! Applications are rolling and decisions will be announced in March.

📆 Follow this 7-day schedule for 3 weeks to get hired!

👩‍💻 And if you're into actionable tips, try out my friend, Jean Kang's newsletter. It's $0, under a 3-min read, and full of gems she picked up advancing from entry level to senior Program Manager in tech (LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Figmate). Try it out! 

^WELLNESS

🎧️ Huberman back at it again with a deep dive on how social media impacts our mental health, work life balance, social interactions, and more!

🧘‍♀️ Hot girls read philosophy and meditate.

🩺 A good summary by SVB on the future of women’s health innovation and investments.

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What’s new on our job board 🔥

1️⃣ Firmware Systems Engineer @ Aquila

2️⃣ Principal Investor @ Studio Management

3️⃣ Chief People Officer @ Studio Management

4️⃣ Game Engineer (Unreal) @ Communion

5️⃣ Operations Role @ Array Ventures

6️⃣ Digital Marketing Specialist @ Ylopo

… and more! 😉

❤️ Avni, Founder @ Gen She // Sponsor this newsletter