When profitability makes you uncomfortable (yes, really)

Profitability is supposed to be a good thing for a startup. Actually, it’s supposed to be the thing.

It was the goal we had been working toward for years at Wows Global, the fintech company I founded. For a while it felt like a pipe dream, until we recently hit the milestone.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Instead of feeling pure joy, the big moment made me feel a little uncomfortable. Why?

After years of building and experimenting, I now take home a market salary, our financials are stable, and I don’t wake up in cold sweats about payroll, which, in theory, is what I was aiming for.

And yet, I knew I needed to find ways to stay hungry despite the success. I’ve been trying different ways to do this, and hopefully, my thoughts here offer practical lessons for founders facing a similar challenge.

The trap of comfort

In my earlier startup days, hunger came naturally. It was in the DNA of the journey: early mornings, late nights, no money, constant pressure, everything always on the line.

But once a certain level of financial stability kicked in, I felt like I was no longer operating from a place of urgency. And while that might sound like a luxury, it came with a cost.

I noticed it when I started skipping networking events that I would have forced myself to attend a year earlier. I wasn’t chasing new leads with the same intensity, and the midnight replies to client messages became next morning tasks.

See also: Unexpected yet practical insights for community building

The hustle of self-promotion, posting, pinging, and pushing started to fade, and that raw hunger gave way to cautious pacing.

This shift in mindset coincides with a change in role as a founder. In the early days, I was the one doing scrappy operations, replying to customer support tickets, managing spreadsheets at midnight, and personally chasing leads.

Today, my role looks very different. It’s about managing a team, building client relationships, speaking to investors, setting long-term strategies, and thinking five steps ahead.

That shift is important and healthy, but it also distances founders from the chaos that kept them hungry. The challenge is to not lose that fire just because the scope has changed.

How I try to stay sharp

What this phase is teaching me

A note to fellow founders