The Loneliest Meeting You'll Ever Have.

Everyone talks about building a team. Very few people talk about what happens before there is one.

Before the meetings. Before the brainstorming sessions. Before someone says he thinks that's a great idea, or that he doesn't think you should do that.

Before all of that, there's just you. An empty chair. And a decision that nobody else can make.

People sometimes think the hardest part of being a solo founder is doing everything yourself. Writing code. Talking to customers. Creating content. Fixing bugs. Managing finances.

Those things are difficult. But they aren't the hardest part.

The hardest part is making decisions when there's nobody to ask.

Every important decision starts with a meeting.

It just happens entirely inside your own head.

The Builder wants to ship today. The CEO worries about the long-term vision. The Product Manager thinks the feature isn't ready. The Researcher wants more data. The Marketer wants a bigger announcement. The Finance department reminds everyone there's a budget. Support quietly asks what happens if this breaks tomorrow.

And somehow, they're all waiting for the Founder to decide.

Sometimes those internal meetings last five minutes. Sometimes they last five days. Sometimes you make the right decision. Sometimes you don't.

The difficult part is that you rarely know which one it was until months later.

People often say to trust your gut. I do. But experience has taught me that my gut also likes to argue with itself. Quite a lot.

The chair across the table.

There are moments when I wish there were someone sitting in the chair across from me.

Not because I need someone to make the decision. But because sometimes you simply want to hear that yes, this is worth building, and to keep going.

Instead, the room stays quiet.

So you make the decision anyway. You close the laptop. You go to sleep. And tomorrow you live with whatever you decided today.

That's part of the job.

The funny thing is, one day that empty chair won't be empty anymore.

Someone will sit there. We'll disagree. We'll challenge each other. We'll probably argue about priorities.

And I'll smile, because I'll remember when every meeting looked exactly like this.

Until then, the weekly meeting is fully booked.

Attendance: one. Responsibility: one hundred percent.

And yes, Aramis attended the meeting. He didn't say much. But judging by how quickly he fell asleep, he seemed pretty confident in the strategy.

Probably the calmest person in the room.

From time to time, I'll share a Founder's Reality Check. Not startup advice. Not growth hacks. Just honest stories from the journey of building something from nothing.