Naseem SayaniInvestor | Innovator | Ecosystem Builder | Board Director

How many times can you hear “no” before you start questioning your worth? #femalefounders #podcast

Name: How many times can you hear “no” before you start questioning your worth? #femalefounders #podcast
Uploaded: 2026-02-18T15:01:17+00:00
Duration: 42 s
Channel: Naseem Sayani
Description: In this podcast excerpt, Speaker A recounts the emotional turmoil of raising a pre‑seed round, describing an existential identity crisis triggered by…

18 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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In this podcast excerpt, Speaker A recounts the emotional turmoil of raising a pre‑seed round, describing an existential identity crisis triggered by repeated rejections, unpaid work, and quitting a job to focus on the startup. The constant “no” led to deep questioning of personal value and self‑worth. Over time, Speaker A notes personal growth, learning to tolerate rejection by building mental “calluses” – treating resilience like a muscle that can be strengthened. Speaker B offers brief empathy, underscoring the difficulty of the experience.

Chapters

When I was raising my pre-seed round, I felt like I was having an existential identity crisis because I'm subjecting myself to being told no so many times while also questioning my value and my self-worth and what I'm doing, investing, you know, like spending all this time quitting my job and working on this company and not getting paid and hearing no and still having to keep going. So I think, I mean, an aspect of growth for me personally has been that I don't feel as much of an existential crisis being told no over and over again as I've continued to raise capital. So there's definitely still an aspect of it there, but that first time was really, really hard on me just emotionally and personally about who I am and my value and my identity because of that. I'd never done anything like that before.
Yeah, it's tough.
It's tough because you have to really build some almost calluses so you get used to it and you can respond to it differently. I do. I think it's a muscle.