How Traveling Cured My Burnout

Some Background

I worked at FB for four years on the FB live and Oculus teams. I ended up leaving to start a company with my best friend :"True3D Technologies Inc". We were lucky to get into YC's W21 batch. We even made a fun 3d prototype showcasing our video game streaming tech

Shortly after demo day, we decided to pivot the company for a bunch of reasons(happy to share if people are interested). And shortly after that, my cofounder decided to leave the company.

Having a lack of direction and feeling alone, I started to burnout.

Burnout Sucks

I found myself working less and less everyday, distracting myself with outdoor activities like slack lining, surfing and biking around Santa Monica. During this period, I would have been lucky to have gotten 2 hours of work in a day. I started to feel guilty, and depressed. I would wake up in the middle of the night stressed out about work, and how this whole venture was a complete failure.

I told myself I either needed to fix my burnout or return the money to my investors. So I decided to try something radical.

The Hail Mary

I'm not one for half-measures. For example, when I wanted to play fewer video games, I threw my console into a dumpster to remove the temptation.

To reignite my motivation, I decided to give up my beach front Santa Monica apartment, sell/donate all of my belongings that didn't fit in my suitcase, and start to travel full time. I had no idea if this would fix my burnout, but I knew I had to try something. As my apartment became more and more empty, I grew more and more nervous about the crazy decision I had just made. I began to regret it.

With suitcase in hand and my backpack on my shoulders, I turned off the lights to my apartment for the last time and headed for Oahu. Finally excited for what was coming next.

It worked!

My motivation came back almost immediately, and it felt natural.
My days consisted of working from 7am-5pm, then surfing/hiking until the sun set. Over time, I naturally shifted from working 5 days a week to 7 days a week, but it never felt forced (I take off days when I don't feel the need to work).

Instead of trying to make each week feel healthy, I started thinking in terms of how I was working each day. This has made all the difference for me. It's kept me resilient to the lows of pivoting a company and has made the process feel sustainable.

After pivoting for months, I found a big problem that I felt uniquely positioned to solve: Preparing for Big Tech Interviews sucks. Which ultimately led to me kicking off Hackpack.io

Looking forward

8 months into traveling and I've never been happier or more productive. I want to keep this lifestyle up as long as possible.

As for the business, we are one customer away from 2k MRR growing over 30% m/m and we are starting to get shoutouts from members who have gone through the program.

As the business grows, I'm not sure how feasible continuing to travel around the globe will be, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

The take away

As a solo founder, your motivation and discipline are precious. Without them, nothing else matters. If you find yourself burning out, take it seriously and address it instead of just hoping it will get better.

P.S

I'm new to the Indie Hackers community, if anyone wants to connect on Twitter let follow each other! My twitter

P.P.S
If anyone is in the middle of pivoting a company and just wants to vent, feel free to hmu. I know how soul crushing it can be.