Sweat poured down my face while my teeth chattered like a cartoon character in a blizzard.
I was waiting for my final connecting flight after a brutal 10-hour journey home from Japan with salmonella poisoning (what should have been obvious: don’t eat chicken sashimi on a dare).
While gripping the chair armrests for dear life, my pocket buzzed. I pulled out my phone and my stomach took a break from cartwheels and dropped to the floor.
It was a text from my colleague, Stephen, which read:
“Hey you’re back in the office tomorrow right? I just booked you a demo with Nick Huber for 8 AM. Your calendar was free.”
For those who don’t know, Nick is a successful entrepreneur with a big following online. Back in 2023 he had launched multiple businesses and was growing super fast. His most recent venture: a business brokerage, a natural fit for his audience. This was a huge demo, as my company at the time was a software to automate the deal process for brokers.
I mustered up a reply that I’m pretty sure was just “okay” and then closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair, shivering into a half-sleep.
The next morning I woke up jet lagged and feeling just as bad (if not worse) than the day before, sprinting to the bathroom every 15 minutes. I had no idea how I was going to do this demo. But this is the closest I’ll ever get to MJ’s flu game.
Through fever-induced adrenaline, I guided Nick through our standard demo, fielding some tough questions and negotiating on pricing. I had started the morning with body chills, so I had thrown on a hoodie and sweatpants (terrible call). I ended up sweating through all three layers of my clothes and a literal puddle had started forming under my chair.
Nick, probably feeling sorry for how sweaty and ghost white I was on the call, agreed to move forward by the end of the demo.
I laugh at this story now, but it reinforced the power in doing hard things. Yeah, sure, I had a (very) valid reason to push the meeting a week. I could have told myself, ‘oh you probably do a lot better on the call when you’re feeling better, you HAVE to reschedule’ when in reality maybe pushing a week wouldn’t have worked with Nick’s schedule and we would have never been able to connect.
All I know is that when you want something badly enough, putting your head down and refusing to make excuses (humanity’s favorite pastime) is often the answer.
I’ve realized that entrepreneurship really comes down to sustained momentum with your team and clients. Driving constant progress is hard, otherwise everyone would do it. The moments that separate those who succeed from those who don’t often come down to showing up when every part of you is screaming to stay home.
idea of the week 💡
Credit: IdeaBrowser.com
Problem: NIL was supposed to be the upside. Score goals, get paid, post for brands. Instead: 400 DMs, three missed deadlines, a compliance meeting Thursday, and parents driving four hours because nobody taught a 20-year-old to run a business. The protein bar company says she owes them a post. The contract is a screenshot somewhere between chemistry notes and a Halloween selfie.
Idea: Deal Vault puts every brand partnership in one place. Connect Instagram. Connect email. The system pulls inbound pitches, uses AI to extract terms, and organizes everything into a pipeline: inquiry, negotiating, signed, posted, paid. No more hunting for contracts in DM threads. No more forgetting which brand paid and which still owes. Deadlines surface before they pass. Compliance disclosures generate in whatever format the athletic department requires. The 20-year-old finally has a back office.
How it makes money: Free for athletes. The money comes from universities. $10,000–25,000 annually buys a compliance dashboard showing every athlete’s deal status across the program. When the NCAA asks questions, the athletic director has answers.
Why it might fail: Requires deep partnerships with compliance offices and athletic departments to drive adoption. You’d need to train AI on real brand outreach to distinguish legitimate offers from crypto scams and reply-guy noise. Five hundred thousand college athletes became small business owners overnight—the infrastructure is still catching up, and the first tool that makes the chaos manageable wins.
friday fitness
give one of these workouts a try this weekend
at-home workout:
Complete 5 rounds:
15 burpees
20 air squats
10 diamond push-ups
30-second plank hold
gym workout
5 sets of:
Deadlift: 5 reps
Bench Press: 6 reps
Weighted Pull-ups: 8 reps
Dumbbell Lunges: 10 reps per leg
outdoor workout
For time:
Run 800m
50 jump squats
40 push-ups
30 sit-ups
Run 800m
tweet of the week
founders: your weekly reminder that finding founder fitness is essential to sustainable success.
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