From corporate life to entrepreneurship

If you had told my younger self I'd become an entrepreneur, I wouldn't have believed it.

Back then, entrepreneurship scared me. I saw firsthand the less-than-glamorous side of entrepreneurship through family and friends. It ate through their financial stability, challenged relationships, created endless administrative tasks and toyed with self-confidence and trust.

It forced parents to juggle conflicting priorities—like bringing children to work or leaving them with caregivers—all to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Uncertainty, loneliness and the pressure to make constant sales to cover costs created an emotional rollercoaster. Every day was a hustle, and failure had real consequences.

Even then, I understood why they kept going: they were voracious learners, creative, ambitious and driven by their desire for freedom. They embraced discomfort, challenged the status quo and believed they had more to offer this world.

Entrepreneurship gave them purpose, but I never saw it as a viable career path—until I knew my core values were secure and wouldn’t compromise the decisions I made for my company. Along the way, I redefined what success means for me and my business.

This is my winding story of how startup life and corporate experience revealed and shaped my values and unexpectedly prepared me for entrepreneurship.

How early experiences shaped my entrepreneurial mindset

My journey started on the Central Coast of California, among the low mountain ranges of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (SLO). This is where I first encountered entrepreneurship as a positive lifestyle.

After my first quarter, my career path felt uncertain, and I was stuck in limbo. I transferred to SLO in 2003 and encountered entrepreneurship through a student-run graphics company, UGS. Here, the idea of a different career plan was planted.

UGS was full of collaborative creativity, blending traditional print media with modern tech. We solved problems, taught industry leaders and built digital business models. We were constantly learning, and being wrong wasn’t failure or incompetence—it was an opportunity for growth. We were scrappy and driven. We made and lost money, implemented ISO and FSC-certified sustainability practices and built a business that served both people and the environment.

It was bigger than us, and it felt perfect.

I left SLO with a strong sense of the kind of professional culture and values I thrived in, and I learned this vital lesson—know the environment where you do your best work and build your business accordingly.

But despite three great years with UGS, I still wasn’t sold on entrepreneurship. And so, guided by my elders—professors and family—I chose the path of Corporate America.

Corporate lessons that shaped my entrepreneurial thinking

When recruiters came scouting, I was ready to put my skills to use—but I didn’t expect it to be in sales. I thought sales meant acting like a pushy car salesman. But during my interview, HR and my future boss sold me on a different vision: an intrapreneurial, tech sales and strategy role that would allow me to work with senior leaders, teach and sell the value of a SaaS business model, collaborate cross-functionally and travel on the company’s dime.

I was sold!

The role also complemented a new set of professional values—financial security, career growth and continuous learning.

But I entered Corporate America at a terrible time—the Great Recession. Companies were fighting for survival. Traditional sales tactics fell short; we needed to adapt quickly to stay competitive. I had to find new customers and markets while also learning to partner—and close deals—with small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), startups and scale-ups.

Trying to achieve the same results exposed cracks in corporate life. Large companies dictated partnerships with SMEs through rigid contracts, vague expectations, minimal budgets and poor communication. They avoided risk, resisted new markets and leaned on SMEs for adaptability—a reactive outcome of the Great Recession.

In these corporate partnerships, employees on both sides sacrificed their health and personal lives for demanding roles, often with uncompetitive pay and little recognition. This resulted in top talent leaving when they couldn’t fix the systems they were hired to improve. Meanwhile, power-hoarding leaders thrived, hitting sales targets despite high turnover, stress leave and questionable ESG practices.

Tech could shift behavior, but it couldn’t change leaders who didn’t see themselves as the problem or weren’t held accountable for retention, well-being, or sustainability. Corporate values struggled to match reality even in the world’s ‘happiest’ countries.

Despite all this pressure, SMEs, to my surprise, thrived. They could make operational changes quickly by prioritizing customer needs over simply pushing their offerings. This earned them loyalty and strengthened their competitive edge. I saw SMEs working with solopreneurs and consultants to implement these changes.

It became clear that scaling with purpose and profit was possible.

Their approach made me rethink where and how impact could be applied. These companies moved beyond survival mode by diversifying revenue early and refining their ideal customers as they adapted. They sought leaders, board members and investors who valued more than immediate revenue. Instead, they built stable, psychologically safe workplaces that encouraged intelligent risk taking and adaptability with long-term decision-making over reactive responses.

It felt like everyone was struggling, but I chose to stay because I had access to cutting-edge technology, global markets and brilliant colleagues. Colleagues who used tech to solve sustainability challenges while driving revenue and addressing future problems—those were my people.

Lessons from LinkedIn and blitzscaling within an SME

Between my corporate stints, I had the opportunity to join a scaleup on its way to becoming a “Goliath." That company was LinkedIn. It was everything my student startup had been and more.

Leaders were trained in emotional intelligence; different business areas were built on company values; and employees were supported in their growth and development, even as the company generated high revenue.

LinkedIn was blitzscaling while expanding its SME and nonprofit client base. Blitzscaling is when tech companies prioritize speed over accuracy and rely less on lengthy, detailed, heavy PowerPoints business strategies for predictable outcomes; it felt counterintuitive and right, to say the least.

This dynamic strategy showed how companies could move quickly, collaborate at scale, and develop leaders without compromising employee benefits, profitability, or positive impact.

As a result, we grew faster than we could hire, and employees with leadership potential were developed early. Employee retention and satisfaction were high because we were given so much autonomy.

Was it flawless and without problems? No, but there was accountability and appreciation for intelligent risk taking. I worked with inspiring leaders and colleagues, who became lifelong BFC friends—it felt like a dream.

Especially when I discovered LinkedIn’s monthly InDays and the world of corporate side hustles.

Everyone had a side hustle—except me. My colleagues juggled jobs, businesses and families, showing that entrepreneurship didn’t have to mean risking it all. They redefined what success in their careers, finances, personal wellness, caregiving and flexibility looked liked. That lesson stuck with me. A competitive edge isn’t just what you build but how you define success and who you share it with.

So, after nearly two decades of trying to bridge the gap, I decided to step away from the Goliaths and do what inspired me rather than what scared me—build a business based on my values.

Overcoming fear by becoming an entrepreneur

Fear kept me from entrepreneurship for years. But I realized many of those fears—financial instability, strained relationships, lack of community—stemmed from unmet core needs. I didn’t need to eliminate fear, just build a business that upheld my values and principles. This would guarantee I wasn’t constantly at war with myself or making business decisions in survival mode.

I’ve developed expertise in sales, SaaS technology and intrapreneurship, focusing on integrating sustainability into business strategy and strengthening partnerships between SMEs and enterprises.

My company is built on the same values that guided my journey—continuous learning, resourcefulness, adaptability, curiosity, creativity, transparency, accountability and trust.

With these values as my foundation, I finally made the leap in July 2024 and launched my business.

I created Go with the Flow to show SMEs how to benefit from sustainability's commercial and operational value. Through AI assessments and hands-on advisory, we reduce risks and time-consuming tasks so leaders can focus on what matters—core responsibilities and profitable, values-led growth.

The facts behind the ‘gut feeling’ are that the EU Green Deal is primarily designed for big corporations, despite SMEs accounting for 99% of EU businesses and making up nearly 50% of the EU non-financial business sector. This leaves the EU with almost half of its economy at risk, in addition to its prime area for innovation, diversity, equality, equity, and collective ability to achieve both the Green and Digital Transitions.

SMEs are undoubtedly key to achieving EU goals. Still, they need a more precise understanding of the different values that sustainability provides in order to voluntarily invest limited people and resources into making changes.

Go with the Flow is envisioned to be a standalone AI subscription tool. However, after 130+ interviews over eight months with SMEs, global companies, EU sustainability leaders, and rapidly changing AI legislation, I realized a self-service AI tool alone wasn’t enough.

While technology can uncover risks and opportunities, reduce time-consuming tasks, and gather sustainability metrics for reporting, human expertise is essential to turning data insights into strategy and implementing changes.

Today's leaders must be more generalists to re-examine business models, leverage partnerships and ecosystems while realizing sustainability benefits.

Go with the Flow blends AI-driven assessments with hands-on advisory, helping SMEs and their partners integrate sustainability into strategy while building leadership capabilities.

Entrepreneurship on your terms

The phrase, “go with the flow” is typically seen as passive conformity, but it's actually about adapting and creating your own path. Like water, you can navigate around obstacles—and with time, even move the mountains that once seemed immovable.

I used to think entrepreneurship was an all-or-nothing gamble with less than a handful of ways to succeed. But success isn’t one-size-fits-all. Ditch the cookie-cutter playbook— ignore the naysayers that say “corporates can’t be entrepreneurs”. Get to know yourself, own your strengths and weaknesses, learn from those who came before you and stay curious about what you don’t know. Take care of yourself and the people who matter. Change doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Have you noticed the shift? I’m living proof of it.

Entrepreneurship is evolving. Hard skills still matter, but success is no longer about pushing yourself to burnout and sacrificing at all costs. People are redefining entrepreneurship to align with their values and principles, where sustainability, financial security, relationships and well-being are just as important as business growth. I’m not saying I know better. I’m just saying this version of entrepreneurship fits me better, even if it doesn’t work out.

So, if you’re considering entrepreneurship—or are already on the journey—maybe it’s time to check in with yourself:

• Why am I choosing to do this now?
• What does success truly look like to me?
• Does my business align with values and principles I believe in?
• If not, why not? And do I need help?
• Why not just start now?

This is your story. You’re holding the pen. So write your next chapter in a way that fits your life, not someone else’s version of it.