I knew I missed conferences. But I did not fully understand how much.
Being an introvert (that can act as an extrovert when needed) I rather enjoyed the lack of social interactions in the last year and a half. But I was getting more and more groggy as months went by. Nothing major, but I could definitely detect that my energy was kinda lower than usual and getting through the less interesting tasks at work was more of a chore.
Then Founder Summit happened. A 4-day trip to Mexico City to spend time with like-minded founders of calm companies. Founders that value people over ubergrowth, their family over 100-hour-weeks and long-term sustainability over the next VC round. My kinda folks!
Coming back and decompressing from the event was such an eye-opener of how much I need these in-person interactions every now and then. How easy it was to build profound friendships with strangers over the course of just a few days — something I forgot was doable for someone like myself. That even introverts need their tribe.
I’m writing this exploding with productive energy, getting up early every day eager to start working on helping fellow founders adopt better security practices with Pareto Security, even if it means answering support questions instead of coding. It’s been a while since I felt this way, and boy did I miss it!
