Co-founding Fusial with my Startup-founder Husband

The idea for Fusial came about a few months ago.

As excited as I was about building a startup with Bailey, I felt paralyzed by the lack of direction and structure that came with it.

I familiarized myself with various web design software and marketing strategies, treating them as prep work for when we "get serious" about officially launching it. I did not take the initiative sooner because, while Bailey grew up in the startup world, having been the youngest founder to raise a Series A, I had no idea what was "supposed to happen." I was waiting for a manual, a playbook, anything that would get me to the "start" in startup.

One day, I grew so frustrated with my own timidity that I turned it on Bailey. Why hadn't he given me a roadmap? (I'm sad to admit this.)

This is what he said to me. 👇

"Nobody knows how to be a founder."

"Many of us still don't know."

I'd spent years in academia, where there was always a rubric, always a next research project, always an advisor, always someone telling you what "good" looked like. Nobody had ever told me it was okay not to know. The relief hit so hard that I was confident enough to finally take the initiative and stop seeing every decision as a test I could fail.

The web design tools, the marketing strategies, the "prep work," I'd been using them as an excuse to be stuck. Once I stopped, we started building Fusial for real. And I seriously could not be prouder.