Mehul Agarwal said leaving his job to build a startup brought only “11 minutes” of freedom before the weight of full responsibility set in.
In an Instagram video, the Indian founder said having no boss still left him with more tasks than before, undercutting the idea that entrepreneurship means less pressure.
By day 3, Agarwal said his 6 AM “founder energy” had turned into anxiety, and he was questioning his decisions after repeatedly reworking a three-month plan.
The clip drew strong social media engagement, with users calling it a rare honest account of startup life; the report said the user-generated claims were not independently verified.
As AI empowers solo founders, will it alleviate the pressure or create an even deeper crisis of loneliness?
Is founder burnout a personal flaw, or is the startup ecosystem itself fundamentally broken?