“I’m a professional dragon slayer”

I’m building a startup and I’m terrified to tell you about it

Building something from nothing is scary, filled with uncertainty and risks, and a nearly 100% guarantee of some form of failure at some point. But it’s nothing compared to the fear of telling people about it, at least for me.

Struggling with a deadly trifecta of imposter syndrome, perfectionism and fear of failure, telling people “I’m a start-up founder” to me sounds the same as saying “I’m a professional dragon slayer”.

What even is that?

Is that a job?

What makes you qualified for that?

What makes you think you can do that?

You quit your job for that?

Yes. Yes, I did.

And though I’ve never experienced it in real life (I am also extremely afraid of heights), the experience felt like jumping off a cliff, with a group of amazing, supportive people cheering me on, congratulating me for being brave. And I am so grateful for their support.

But I am not brave.

Despite having led various projects and teams across research, tool development, communications and community for almost a decade, my own startup seems so real, so vulnerable, so risky - at times I feel almost paralyzed. I had the idea for this startup for months and months, but I figured I would just keep it to myself forever. Maybe in the next life, I will feel ready.

But then I realized, I have a choice. And in that choice is power.

There is an expression in Ukrainian that roughly translates to “My eyes are scared but my hands are doing” ?????This has morphed into my official life motto of “just doing things scared”.

I did not become any less scared - I am just choosing to do it anyway.

Since May, I’ve brought together a team of incredible minds to develop Zemlia - across product management, software engineering, AI, research, data analysis, data visualization, and marketing, and we’ve faced tons of challenges already and many more to come. Yet talking about Zemlia publicly still feels more daunting than anything else. I’ve been sitting on this post since November ??

On the other hand, I am so incredibly excited about what we are creating, absolutely confident to my core that what we are building will have a huge impact, and so proud of my team - that I want to shout from the rooftops. Not only because I want to give my team the credit and recognition they deserve, but also because I believe in how incredibly supportive the climate community is, and I want to officially join the ranks of startups working on individual action and climate solutions - so we can support each other, learn form each other, partner and grow together. Our logo at Zemlia is a boat, because we all rise with the tide ?????

So, here we are. We are Zemlia - building a comprehensive, positive, data-driven suite of products aimed at supporting individual action for holistic sustainability: saving money, improving health outcomes, reducing climate anxiety, driving positive environmental impact, and enhancing wellbeing of communities. I'm so excited to share our progress with you starting from today ???

Follow along if you’d like to stay in the loop ??

Also, feel free to check out our website, sign up for our Insider Newsletter and product waitlists, if you are so inclined.

?? Nudge For You

If you're reading this and holding back on something because of fear, consider this your call to action. You don't have to wait until you're ready, because it might never happen. Go for it! (and let me know how it goes!)

Here's to doing things scared, but doing them nevertheless! ??