People often ask me, "What's so special about Capital Factory?" My family wants to know why I spend so much time there. My friends think it might be a cult.

I tell them all the same thing:

It's the founders, stupid.

The startup founders are what make Capital Factory special. After all, being an entrepreneur is not a job for normal people. In fact, it's not really a job at all - it's more like a medical condition. If I told you I wanted to quit my job, drain my savings account, work 80 hour weeks, and subject myself to a constant stream of ego-crushing failures, you'd check me into a mental hospital.

But Capital Factory is full of wackos like this, and I love every one of them. In fact, it's these wackos that make Capital Factory great.

Where else can you hang out with more than a hundred people that are plotting their own course through the universe, making their own opportunities, and building the future right before your very eyes? Where else can you witness discovery, invention, and creation every single day? Where else can you see, on a regular basis, the triumph of will and determination over adversity?

Capital Factory is the only place I know of.

Without the founders, there could be no Capital Factory. Their optimism creates an incredible energy that is the soul of this place, and they are the reason I love being here.

Capital Factory is a lunatic asylum full of people crazy enough to think they can change the world.

Creating a start-up is unlike every other role I've ever had, even though I've started plenty of things from scratch for other people. In those other jobs, I always had someone providing at least a compass and a minimum set of resources, and setting boundaries and routines as the project operated within a larger company framework.

Having a start-up is sheer freedom... and sometimes sheer terror. You make all the decisions, and wear so many hats, some of them outside your comfort zone. It's impossible to do it any other way. Founders have to be nimble and brave and determined every day. The bias is action, which means there are inevitable mistakes. Avoiding mistakes is awesome, but Mikey says that all CEO's are learning on the job, and they're all crap so the premium has to be on personal growth.

Just in case we founders didn't already have enough to do, learning how to be an excellent CEO is a critical part of the job. At Capital Factory, we have the chance to learn from awesome mentors and partners who have already managed this transition. They've already made some of the mistakes that rookie CEO's make and they respond with empathy and encouragement, letting you know that it's normal and inevitable. They help put your focus on the recovery, and work side by side with you to quickly arrive at workable solutions. They also push you and help calibrate progress in the context of the many start-ups they see. This is so valuable, as it is otherwise easy to get lost in the small but exciting world of your own thing.

No one ever builds a successful start-up by themselves. CF helps stack the odds in your favor and Weeva is honored to be part of such a vibrant and supportive community. A big shout out to the mentors and partners - especially Eric, Russell, Josh, Gordon, Mikey and Jan - who rally to help us succeed everyday. We would not be this far along without you.