🤔 Mindset > Metrics

The most important skills you need as a founder have nothing to do with your ability to build products, raise money, or close deals. They’re about mental resilience and maintaining a healthy separation between your self-worth and your startup’s performance.

I learned this the hard way when my first startup went from $2.4M in annual revenue to less than $1M in a year. This painful experience taught me a valuable lesson:

To build a resilient company, you have to first build a resilient mindset. You need an inner game as strong as your outer game that is grounded in a sense of self, separate from external metrics and outcomes.

Now as I build daydream, I’m putting this into practice. Today, I want to share 3 principles that have been game-changers for me in building a more sustainable approach to entrepreneurship.

For each principle, I’ve included specific action steps you can take to put it into practice today.

📝 3 Principles for a Resilient Founder Mindset

• Why aiming without a target leads to better outcomes

• How to build a personal board of directors that actually works

• A counterintuitive approach to sustainable growth

1. Aim without a target

Most founders approach building a company like a series of finite tasks: raise this round, hit this revenue target, ship this feature…

The truth is when you operate like this, it creates a perpetual state of “waiting to be done” — which is exhausting and unsustainable. It reminds me of my middle school wrestling days.

Before each match, I’d experience crazy amounts of anxiety that I’d spend weeks in dread, my mind locked in endless rumination about winning or losing. This would continue until I couldn’t take it anymore and quit the sport entirely.

Years later, I read The Power of Now and had a revelation that transformed both my personal life and how I run my business. I realized that instead of simply observing my thoughts, I had been chasing them and getting caught up in their narrative as if they defined me.

That particular passage gave me a sense of separation from my thoughts, and suddenly, I could see them for what they were: fleeting mental events, not absolute truths.

Practicing this awareness brought an unexpected transformation — I went from feeling weeks of dread to a surprising sense of calm, even bliss. The external circumstances hadn’t changed, but my internal landscape had.

I still focus on metrics like “3x revenue” at daydream, but I see them as lagging indicators. The things that get you there are the specific processes, systems, and improvements:

1. How do we consistently recruit A-tier growth marketers?

2. How do we build an internal operating system that delivers 95th percentile SEO results?

3. How do we stay at the forefront of our industry and drive strong thought leadership?

I call this “aiming without a target.” It’s about playing the infinite game —focusing on giving 100% effort each day and staying present in the process, rather than obsessing over specific outcomes or finite goals.

2. Build a personal board of directors

Fun fact: I ran daydream’s entire pre-seed round from the San Francisco Zen Center, where I lived for two years.

This wasn’t a coincidence. It was part of building a support system that extends far beyond tech. Here’s my exact personal board of directors that I’ve refined over 5+ years:

🙏 Zen monk

Every other week, I meet with a Zen monk, a former Citibank banker who left during the 2008 financial crisis. We chat for an hour about whatever is on my mind.

I used to let things stew in my head, but meeting with a monk regularly has helped me work through things much faster.

Now, anytime that something comes up that bothers me, it doesn’t sit in my mind very long. I’m able to process challenges more quickly, so I can move on and focus on the next task at hand.

🏋️‍♂️ Personal trainer

Twice a week, I work with a personal trainer. Exercise has always been an area where I’ve felt the least present. In the past, every time I would start working out, I’d fixate on when I’d be finished. 

Having a trainer has taught me to appreciate the process and be more present in my workouts. One of my goals for 2025 is to get to 10% body fat. I’m grateful to have someone in my corner to help me get there.

🧧 Chinese teacher

Three times a week, I meet with a Chinese teacher — one of my goals for this year is to get to Chinese proficiency level HSK 5. Sure, my teacher is going to help me boost my proficiency, but believe it or not, most of what she talks to me about has less to do with Chinese and more to do with my life. 

Each session pushes me to articulate my challenges entirely in Mandarin. This not only helps me look at problems differently but also helps me gain perspective from someone entirely outside of the tech bubble which is really refreshing.

The key here is diversity of perspectives — none of these mentors are in tech, yet they help me process challenges in ways a traditional board of directors never could.

3. Create systems that scale

Anyone can put in a great week or even month of work. But crushing it every day for a year? You need systems for that. 

Here’s my three-step system to create balance in my life:

1) Follow a daily routine

Daily routines are the foundation for sustainable growth. I’ve spent two years refining mine:

• ☀️ 5:30AM: Wake up

• 🏋🏻‍♀️ 6:00AM: Exercise (Strength training M/W, cardio T/Th)

• 📚 7:00AM: Chinese lesson

• ☕ 8:00AM: Breakfast & getting ready

• ✍🏻 9:00AM: Reading and journaling using Lightpage

• 💼 9:30AM: Start work

2) Track everything in a spreadsheet

I track all goals I am working towards in a spreadsheet. I’m currently focused on 4 key metrics:

• Chinese review sessions

• Workouts completed

• Meditation sessions

• Diet adherence

3) Share personal updates with my friends

Just like I send monthly investor updates for daydream, I send weekly personal updates to 3 of my closest friends.

The Bottom Line

We’re all juggling multiple priorities. We’re all trying to build successful companies. And we all want to achieve our goals faster.

But the founders who build lasting companies aren’t the ones with the perfect strategy or the biggest funding round. They are the ones who build sustainable systems, cultivate diverse perspectives, and focus on the process rather than just the outcome.

I’m not always perfect at this, but I’m learning. And I hope you will too. Because when we focus on building strong foundations, success becomes a natural byproduct of our systems.

🚀 Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help:

1. Book a Call to discuss how daydream can help you drive consistent organic growth — as we have with companies like Clay, Descript, and OpenArt.

2. Request a custom Answer Engine Optimization Audit to learn what AI queries your brand appears for, how you stack up vs. your competition, and how much AI traffic you get.

3. Download The Complete Guide to Programmatic SEO to learn about the frameworks and tactics used by the best experts in programmatic content.

Thanks for reading! Reply any time. 👋🏻

Until next time,
Thenuka