Abel Adugam

Startup funding has turned into a theatre of hype, handshakes, and “how fast can you scale?” moments. Everyone’s raising, or pretending to and the FOMO is real. We’ll dive into what actually happens when you raise, what to never say in a pitch, how to avoid the “I raised $1M but I’m broke” trap, and why some of the best founders are quietly building, not broadcasting. We’ll also talk about funding fitness: knowing when to raise, how much to raise, and how not to give away 30% of your company for a desk and a coffee machine.

Let’s talk about the emotional cost of building a company. The stress, the isolation, the “I should be further along by now” guilt trip. This isn’t your usual “mental health in startups” talk. It’s a real, raw founder-to-founder session about what it feels like to lead when you don’t feel like leading, how to protect your energy, and when to hit pause before you hit the wall. Think of it as a group therapy session for ambitious humans pretending to have it all together.

Everyone’s building “AI” but mostly it’s fancy autocomplete with a landing page. Let’s cut through the noise. “AI-powered” startups are raising millions while still manually labeling data in Google Sheets. But the real revolution isn’t in hype decks it’s in how founders actually apply AI to create value. We’ll explore what real AI innovation looks like (and what’s just clever marketing), how to navigate investors who don’t know GPT from GPU, and why building quietly with substance beats shouting “AI” on LinkedIn every day. Bonus: I’ll show you how to detect AI vaporware in 10 seconds flat.