The Hardest Part of Startup isn't the work....

I don’t have a hard time sleeping because I’m working late.

I have a hard time sleeping because of the uncertainty.

You don’t know what to expect from customers.

You don’t know if your pipeline will hold.

You don’t know why your messaging isn’t landing.

You don’t know which idea is actually worth doubling down on.

The product’s still buggy.

You’re iterating on brand and copy in public.

You’re cranking up outreach, trying to talk to customers every day… but the volume is still low.

That gap between effort and signal?

It creates anxiety that you carry into everything else.

And even though every week gets a little better… it’s not fast enough.

You want to see movement in days, not wait weeks or months.

But that’s not how early-stage works.

So you keep going.

You try to stay sharp.

You show up, talk to customers, and build what matters.

But yeah… some nights, it’s hard to sleep.

P.S.

Last night, I had a nightmare that I was taking a test I wasn’t ready for.
One of those high-stakes exams… pass or delay graduation kind of test.
I remember thinking:
If I fail this, I can’t retake it until next semester. I am gonna graduate late!

Wild dream. But it makes sense.
It’s the same kind of pressure I feel right now:
High stakes. Limited windows.
And the fear of falling behind.

That’s the emotional part of building a startup no one really talks about.

I'm reflecting on this:

It's okay to graduate “late’. It's not the end of the world, but there's that anxiety of wanting to be at the same pace or even faster than others. Writing this out makes me realize that there's no shame in going slow and trying again.

P.S. If you have 2 min, please take this three-questions survey about this newsletter for me @ https://tally.so/r/3EaPyl 

New here? Here’s what to expect each week:
- Monday: spotlight a lesser-known PLG company
- Tuesday: my PLG experience
- Wednesday: Memes on product, AI, and marketing
- Thursday: tactical growth tips
- Friday: raw accounts of my startup journey

I write daily*** about my learning on launching and leading PLG. Feel free to subscribe.

I am Gary Yau Chan. 3x Head of Growth. Product Growth specialist. 26x hackathon winner. Building ClarityInbox. I write about #PLG and #BuildInPublic. Please follow me on LinkedIn, or read about what you can hire me for on my Notion page.