Founders, Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone Is Often the Breakthrough

Founders... One of the most underused words in business is thank you.

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But this week, I want to talk about something just as underappreciated in early-stage startups:getting uncomfortable.

Last year, I met Maria, the founder of Maria’s Sauce Co. At the time, she had sold just under 200 bottles of her hot sauce.

She had a great product. She had conviction. What she didn’t yet have was momentum.

Like many founders, her mental model was: “People will come find me.” A store. A shelf. A website. A post.

Then, with the help of my good friend Rob Hughes, we pushed her to try something that felt awkward at first.

We told her to grab:

• A bag of chips

• A bottle of her sauce

• And walk out onto the sidewalk
  

And ask strangers one simple question:

“Do you like hot sauce?”

If they said yes, she put the chips and the sauce in their hands and let the product speak for itself.

No pitch deck. No ads. No perfect setup.

Just a founder, her product, and real humans.

Something clicked.

That moment shifted her thinking from waiting for customers to meeting them where they already were.

By the end of the year:

• Her goal was to sell 1,500 bottles

• She sold over 2,000
  

Not because of hacks. Not because of funding. But because she did the uncomfortable, unscalable work and built something people genuinely liked.

This year, Maria’s goal is 20,000 bottles.

And based on her tenacity, work ethic, and the quality of her product, I wouldn’t bet against her for a second.

The lesson here for early-stage founders is simple but hard:

• Growth often lives just outside your comfort zone

• Customers don’t magically appear — you go find them

• The work that feels small and awkward is often the work that compounds
  

If you’re building and feeling stuck, ask yourself:

Where am I still waiting instead of walking out onto the sidewalk?

And if you want to support a founder who’s doing the work the right way, check out Maria’s Sauce Co. here:👉 https://mariashotsauce.com/

Until next time—keep building.

Cheers,

Steve Walsh

Hands On Angel

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