Xaver Lehmann

I was the bottleneck in my own 70-people community. (Ad) When I started it, I did everything myself. Welcomed new members. Added them to the directory. Found useful connections and made every introduction. More than 5 hours, every week. But the admin wasn't the real problem. If I got busy, the whole community became less engaged. A few weeks ago, we introduced Viktor. At first I treated him like every other AI assistant. Ask, wait, copy-paste. Then the shift happened. Viktor prepares welcome messages. Keeps the member directory organised. Suggests useful introductions. I review and approve what goes out. But I no longer start every process myself. The result is not just 5 hours back every week. Our 70 members get a more proactive community, without us hiring a community manager. He becomes part of the team. And he works when you don't. Hire @viktor.com for your team. $100 in credits included, no card. Full link in first comment. Paid partnership with Viktor. #AIemployee #CommunityBuilding

I thought hitting $5M ARR would make me happy. It didn't. Here are 6 things I completely misunderstood about success as a founder. 1. I thought the milestone would feel like something. We hit the numbers, closed the round, signed the exit. Each time I waited for the moment to land. It never did. By the time you arrive, you're already want the next thing. 2. I thought more money meant more freedom. We raised millions. It helped us grow faster, but it also brought pressure, board seats, and constant deadlines. 3. I thought being busy meant being productive. My calendar was full. But my company still had the same three problems it had six months earlier. 4. I thought the company's wins were my wins. When it was up, I was up. When it struggled, I struggled. I tied my whole sense of self to a thing I couldn't fully control. 4. I thought rest was something you earned later. So I pushed. My body sent signals for years. I ignored all of them until it forced me to stop. 5. I thought other founders had it figured out. The ones I admired most were just as lost as me. They were better at hiding it. 6. I thought the exit was the finish line. It wasn't. It was the start of the hardest year of my life. Success isn't the number you hit. It's whether you still recognize yourself when you get there. Every week I share honest lessons from building, burning out, and bouncing back. Join here 👉https://lnkd.in/dmEYTw6B

Last week, everything around me seemed to explode. A LinkedIn post reached 100,000+ people. My inbox filled with hundreds of DMs. I was raising €200,000+ for an SPV, coaching four founders, renovating a house and running everything else solo. I wasn't really working more hours than usual. But I couldn't switch off anymore. Lying in bed at night replaying conversations. Checking Slack, Linkedin and emails without even noticing I'd opened them. I know this pattern. It's how I burned out the first time. So I did something I would have called lazy five years ago. I wrote about it in this week's newsletter.

I built and sold my company for $60m. I still do my own bookkeeping. (Ad) Turns out an exit doesn't buy you out of admin. You still need to find receipts and the transactions need matching. Every quarter there's the same scramble to work out what I can actually claim. For most people it's the same story. Two or three tools, a lot of manual work, and never quite the feeling that it's clean or easy. That's why I love what Qonto has built: business banking and bookkeeping in one app. Receipts and transactions get categorized automatically. UStVA, EÜR and your tax return come pre-filled and file straight to the Finanzamt in a few clicks. The AI flags deductible items you'd otherwise leave on the table. If you're solo and doing your own books, it's genuinely smart and stress-free. The admin will never be fun. It can at least stop stealing your Sundays. My dog is very much in favour. Be honest: how much time did your last tax return actually cost you? If you’d like to learn more, you can check out Qonto here: https://lnkd.in/dkCssNze #Qonto #bookkeeping #businessaccount #selfemployed #admin

The difference between a first-time founder and a second-time founder? Almost everything. Here's what building two companies taught me: 1. First-time founders chase ideas. Second-time founders chase problems. Ideas feel exciting. Pain is what customers actually pay for. 2. First-time founders obsess over the product. Second-time founders obsess over distribution. The best product rarely wins. The best GTM motion does. 3. First-time founders plan forward. Second-time founders plan backward. "If we were already at €5M ARR, what would have to be true today?" That question changes how you prioritize everything else. 4. First-time founders try to do everything. Second-time founders remove almost everything. I used to run 8 weekly 1:1s. I cut all of them. Focus is more important than effort. 5. First-time founders hire for talent. Second-time founders hire for outcomes. One of my best hires came from a cold message and zero reference checks. Attitude and grit beat the CV. 6. First-time founders fundraise for validation. Second-time founders fundraise to accelerate what already works. No ego in the process...Just speed. 7. First-time founders burn out. Second-time founders think they're immune to it. I burned out both times. Just faster the second time, because I recognized none of the signs I'd already lived through once. 8. That's the one experience doesn't automatically fix. First-time founders want to be the CEO of everything. Second-time founders want a company that doesn't need them in every room. 9. First-time founders want success. Second-time founders want control. Over their time. Their decisions. How the game gets played. Here's what I know now that I didn't know then: Experience doesn’t make you smarter. It makes you clearer about what actually matters. Do you agree with all these points? If you’re tired of startup clichés, you’ll love this. Join thousands of founders reading my newsletter every week: https://lnkd.in/dmEYTw6B

Last week I launched The Honest Founder Community on Slack. One week in. Almost 60 founders have joined. They collectively raised over $200M and created $50M in ARR. But that's not why I created it. I created it because being a founder is lonely. Not in the obvious way. You're surrounded by people all day. Employees, investors, customers, advisors. But none of them are going through the same thing as you. You can't tell your team you're scared. You can't tell your investors you're exhausted. You can't explain it to your friends - they just say "but you love what you do." So you carry it alone. I did this for years. Two companies, burnouts. I wish I had had a room full of people who actually got it. That's what this community is. Founders who are in it. Who've been through it. Who tell the truth. If that sounds like something you need, join us here: https://lnkd.in/dfnjGpxU

One of my coaching clients just hit $2M ARR. Completely bootstrapped with only three people. I expected him to celebrate. Instead, within minutes he was talking about what wasn’t working and what had to happen next. I knew exactly how he felt. For years, I kept telling myself: “If we just hit the next milestone…” Sometimes we spend years chasing growth without ever asking ourselves a much simpler question. I wrote more about this in this week’s newsletter. Read the full article here.

I’m actively looking to deploy up to $500k per startup this summer. I’ll be investing alongside a small, carefully selected group of exceptional founders and operators who have built, scaled, and exited companies themselves. The goal isn’t just to provide capital, but to become genuinely helpful partners who can open doors, challenge assumptions, and support founders through the journey. We focus on three things (in that order): 1. Team – exceptional founders with relentless execution. 2. Traction – clear evidence that customers genuinely want the product. 3. Market – large, fast-growing markets where large outcomes are possible. If you’re building something exceptional or know someone who is I’d love to hear from you. I also share my thoughts on startups, investing, and founder life every week in my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dmEYTw6B

Just 6 months ago, I invested in a startup from Vienna. (Ad) Recently, they announced a $17M round led by 20VC at a $140M valuation. Here’s why thousands of businesses use them: 1. They never miss a call. Many companies miss up to 30% of their incoming calls, losing customers before a conversation even starts. Fonio answers every call instantly whether it’s after hours, during lunch, or while your team is busy. 2. It actually sounds human. When I built e-bot7, we dreamed about voice AI like this - the tech just wasn't ready yet. Now it is. Fonio's conversations feel remarkably natural, and they've started beating providers like ElevenLabs on voice quality and turn detection. 3. It takes minutes, not months. You can get started in around three minutes and even test the AI directly on their website. 4. They’re obsessed with execution. This is what convinced me to invest. Every time I speak with Daniel Keinrath and the team, they’ve already shipped, tested and improved the product again. Congratulations to the entire fonio.ai team. Excited to watch the next chapter unfold! Test their AI and get your first month free: https://lnkd.in/egNUesKB