In this Startup With episode, I’m brutally honest about the side of SaaS entrepreneurship no one wants to show — rejection, burnout, and feeling like a loser. This month, I lost a business partner, got rejected from every startup competition (including Estonian Startup Day - my favorite country, didn’t care), and questioned everything I’ve built.

If you’ve ever felt like maybe you’re the problem - this talk is for you. We’ll go through what “tough days” really look like for founders: when motivation dies, imposter syndrome kicks in, and yet you still have to show up.

You’ll learn how to recognize when it’s just one of those days, avoid doing damage, and find small ways to get your strength back. This is a video about survival - not polished success stories.

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⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction: When everything goes wrong

00:31 – Losing a partner & financial pressure

01:25 – Rejected from Estonian Startup Day

02:04 – Rule #1: Acknowledge your state

02:50 – How to avoid spreading negativity

03:56 – Side activities that help relieve stress

04:40 – Bright colors & small rituals that heal

05:22 – Founders are losers? Owning the label

06:09 – The mindset to survive your hardest days

06:24 – Final thoughts: This too shall pass

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🎙️ About the Host Julia George - serial founder, creator, and storyteller. Start Up witch podcast is raw, unfiltered video series about what it really means to build a startup when things don’t go as planned. Focused on mental health, emotional resilience, and the truth behind entrepreneurship.

🌐 Instagram: @startup.witch

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliageorgi/

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💡 About Startup Witch Startup Witch is a storytelling platform that strips away the “success theatre” of the startup world. It’s for founders who’ve been rejected, doubted, or burned out — and still keep building. Real talk. Real emotions. Real entrepreneurship.

If you’re debating a partnership, this video gives you a pragmatic checklist to avoid painful co-founder mistakes—no fluff. We cover the only three valid reasons to bring on a partner (skills, connections, money), how to test reliability fast, the legal basics to align early, and a simple evaluation framework you can use today.

You’ll learn how to separate confidence issues from real capability gaps, run a lightweight “pie-slicing” contribution model for transparency, map critical skill gaps from day one, and run honest performance reviews that actually improve outcomes. Perfect for founders at idea to early build stage who want fewer surprises and more execution.

📍 Timestamps

00:00 Why I started Startup Witch & who this is for

00:26 Do you really need a business partner?

01:12 The only 3 valid reasons: skills, connections, money

03:59 How to test if your cofounder is actually reliable

05:00 Legal alignment: what to discuss before you sign anything

06:20 The “pie-slicing” method for fair equity and transparency

08:39 Mapping your startup’s skill gaps (and fixing them fast)

10:52 Performance reviews & red flags that save your startup

🧙‍♀️ About the Host Julia George (she/her) — the Startup Witch herself. After trading boardrooms for baby bottles, Julia escaped the corporate grind to craft a freer, more meaningful life. She built a pricing and sales consultancy, co-founded SaaS startups, and learned firsthand that chaos is the best teacher. Now she helps founders break their own startup curses, build smarter, and feel less alone in the madness.

Follow on Instagram: startup_witch

Follow Julia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliageorgi/

Visit Julia's innovation Studio: https://kbngconsulting.com/kbng-innovation-studio

AND FINALLY HERE IS THE LINK TO THE FRAMEWORK: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zh9os3oEeOFpw1tjJCBW5HC9FNWyO1Vk7FXlIs_D_ag/edit?usp=sharing

In this episode of Startup Behind the Scenes, we dive into a painful but common startup experience - getting scammed by outsourcing companies, subcontractors, or “partners” who fail to deliver results. Unlike typical “software scam” definitions, we’re talking about real-world business scamming - when people lie about their skills, overcharge you, or simply waste your funding with no accountability.

You’ll learn three major types of scamming every founder faces sooner or later:

1. Lack of accountability for results

2. Lack of technical skill hidden behind smooth talk

3. Lack of respect for your funding - treating your money like “free money.”

If you’re building a startup, outsourcing development, or managing early funding - this episode could save you hundreds of thousands and months of frustration.

Timestamp:

(00:00:00) - The scam no one warns founders about

(00:01:58) - Map the 3 scam types you’ll face

(00:03:41) - Spot Scam #1: No accountability for results

(00:08:26) - Spot Scam #2: Lack of skill (Power BI & AI hype)

(00:15:59) - Spot Scam #3: Disrespecting funding + how to choose honest partners

About the host: Julia George (she/her) - the Startup Witch herself. After swapping boardrooms for baby bottles, Julia broke free from her corporate cage, chasing a more flexible, meaningful life. She conjured pricing and sales excellence consultancy, then co-founded several SaaS startups. And that’s when the real magic (and mayhem) began.

The 9-to-5 spell turned into 16-hour nights - fueled by caffeine, chaos, and customer complaints. But every bug, broken feature, and blown deadline became a lesson worth sharing.

Now Julia channels her experience to help other founders break their own startup curses, build smarter, and feel a little less alone in the madness.

Follow on Instagram: startup_witch

Follow Julia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliageorgi/

Visit Julia's innovation Studio: https://kbngconsulting.com/kbng-innovation-studio