Starting a company as a non-technical founder means doing it all. Out of necessity, you’re covering everything from fundraising to management of the profit and loss, all things product from design to user experience, plus marketing and more—because at the early stages, it’s just you.

The founder journey is a marathon not a sprint and while everyone talks about the physical toll starting a company takes on you, it's the emotional toll that is just as intense. Before Percent, I had built a consulting company called Lumenary and was fortunate enough to have Michael Cline, chairman of Accretive, as one of my clients and mentors. Working with him was an eye-opening experience that continues to shape how I view the founder journey today and why it is that we do what we do.

Being a startup founder comes with a lot of challenges. Most founders know that starting won't be easy, but few of them are prepared that it will take much longer to get off the ground than anticipated. What's more, the product idea they begin with often won't be close to the product that eventually finds product market fit.

It's been a volatile time in markets. The combination of inflation, supply chain woes and geopolitical events have made it difficult to predict where capital markets or even the broader economy are headed. Despite these challenges, private markets and private credit in particular have held up well. In fact, according to Pitchbook, the industry’s AUM could grow to $16.1 trillion by 2027.