What Nobody Tells You About Being a Female Founder

People often ask me what it was like to become a founder.

Very few ask what it cost.

I started studying business when I was eighteen.

I attended conferences, networking events, investment forums, and business schools.

Almost every room looked the same.

Most of the speakers were men.

Most of the founders were men.

Most of the investors, executives, lawyers, and decision-makers were men.

As one of the youngest women in those rooms, I often felt that people noticed my age before my expertise.

Sometimes I had to spend an hour proving I knew what I was talking about before the conversation became truly professional.

I learned very early that knowledge alone wasn't always enough.

Credibility had to be earned—again and again.

So I worked.

Sixteen-hour days became normal.

Sometimes eighteen.

Not because someone forced me to.

Because I believed excellence was the only language everyone respected.

Over time, I built something else besides my career.

I built an identity.

I stopped trying to appear approachable.

I became calm.

Controlled.

Disciplined.

People often described me as cold.

The truth was different.

It wasn't who I was.

It was who I believed I had to become.

I convinced myself that emotions made people underestimate you.

That talking about relationships made you look distracted.

That showing vulnerability would be mistaken for weakness.

So I spoke only about business.

Targets.

Growth.

Numbers.

Execution.

The higher I climbed, the less room I believed there was for the rest of my life.

When I had to choose between staying close to my family or continuing to build my future, I chose the business.

It wasn't because I loved my family less.

It was because I believed I had only one chance to prove that I was capable.

I became isolated.

Work replaced almost everything else.

Achievement became my way of measuring self-worth.

Years later, when I co-founded Orbion, I entered another industry where many of the founders, executives, legal advisors, payment specialists, and partners I met were men.

High-risk industries such as iGaming, payments, fintech, crypto, and cross-border finance are incredibly demanding.

The work moves fast.

Regulations change constantly.

Large amounts of capital are involved.

Mistakes can be expensive.

Decisions often have to be made under pressure and with incomplete information.

It is an environment that rewards discipline, resilience, preparation, and consistency.

There are days when founders forget to eat.

When they work across multiple time zones.

When weekends disappear.

When the line between life and work no longer exists.

I've lived that reality.

But today I see something differently.

The goal isn't to become tougher than everyone else.

The goal is to become strong enough to build a successful business without losing yourself in the process.

For years, I believed respect had to be earned by sacrificing everything.

Today, I believe the strongest founders are not those who hide every emotion.

They are the ones who build companies without forgetting that they are human first.

If I could speak to my eighteen-year-old self today, I would tell her:

You don't have to become someone else to deserve a seat at the table.

You don't have to prove your intelligence by exhausting yourself.

And success means very little if, along the way, you forget who you were trying to become.