Christian Lanng: "How Being a Founder Almost Killed Me" | E1065

... I almost died of anemia (laughs) actually, because I just didn't have time to go to the doctor. I went off to Las Vegas. And when I stepped down from stage, there's a text message from my doctor that says, "Go immediately to the nearest ER and tell them your hemoglobin is 5.4." And arriving in the ER, I tell them, "Hey, uh, my doctor told me my hemoglobin is 5.4." And she's like, "No it's not, because you'd be, you'd be l- laying in a coma on the floor." So yeah, you absolutely sacrifice your health over, over this process.

Christian, when we first did this, I was, I don't know, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory age, probably about 15.

(laughs)

Uh, thank you so much for joining me once again on the show.

Thank you so much for having me, yeah.

No, listen, the pleasure's all mine. I would love to start though with actually the announcement that you made a week or so ago about Tradeshift and your position there. Can you start by just telling us about the position change there and what's going on?

I've been CEO, co-founder, and, and chairman for, for Tradeshift for 14 years. It, it sounds crazy even saying that number. You know, it was inseparable for, for my life, I think, in every way. And I think this year especially, um, I have done a lot of reflection over how the last few years has been, and, and also reflection of not being happy. And I think as founders, and, and often as founders and CEOs, we think we just have to keep doing the job no matter what. Uh, for me, it was really important to get the company to a place where it was in really good shape. But I also made the decision, I think, a long time, like earlier this year, that I would find, uh, and figure out a transition and, and, you know, move to what's next. It's probably the hardest decision in my life, and I had no i- clue how to do it. There was very few people you can talk to about, like, how do you do this, how do you exit this thing you built?

Can I ask you the first question, which is like, I think a lot of people misuse the word burnout.

Mm-hmm.

Or actually have it, but don't know they have it. When did you first realize that actually the feelings that you had were not maybe right?

You know, it probably started during, honestly during the pandemic, right? We were, you know, I'm a very, um, I'm a very social person. I loved coming into office, I loved having all of the engagement with everyone, seeing the creativity of what we're building. And suddenly, I was just sitting, uh, you know, for 14, 16 hours in front of a screen every day, no breaks. Uh, I remember having to do sort of like scheduled bio breaks just to (laughs) be able to run to the restroom, and, and the rest was just one continuous stream. And I, I remember, this sounds bad and for everyone who works at Tradeshift don't think about it that way, but like, I end up hating looking at that screen. I end up hating, uh, I mean, even seeing, uh, at some points the logo, right? And, and it doesn't mean I don't do the work and I didn't, you know, believe in the company and, and didn't wanna get home. Like, I have so much drive towards that. But there's something really, really wrong when the thing you're supposed to love is actually thing that y- you almost, like, you can't bear thinking about it, right?