🤖 #40: Vivian's Deeptech Insider: One Afternoon. One Question. 7 Board Seats 8 Months later.

Hello and welcome to the #40 edition of the fortnightly Vivian's Deeptech Insider.

Very fitting as it's the end of 2025. This time at the start of the year, I was sitting with several CEO opportunities on the table. Good companies. Solid packages. The kind of opportunities most people would jump at.

But I kept finding reasons not to say yes.

That should have told me everything I needed to know. When you're not rushing towards something that looks perfect on paper, your gut is trying to tell you something.

The day after the WITSEND Community (an amazing network successful female C-suites) annual conference in January, I did something I'd never properly done in 18+ years of building companies: I cleared my entire diary and asked myself a single question.

Not "What do I want to achieve?" Not "What should I do next?" But "What does One Fine Day actually look like?"

This is Martha Beck's visualisation exercise (link), which was introduced me to at the annual conference. (Sometimes the right conversation at the right moment changes everything.)

What I Saw (And What I Didn't)

I spent that entire afternoon sitting with the question. Not rushing to answer it. Not making it "productive." Just visualising in detail.

Not the acquisition announcement. Not the payout. Not the LinkedIn post celebrating some milestone. But the actual day-to-day feeling of what "success" looked and felt like—to me.

Here's what came into focus:

I could see how I was showing up. Confident. Strategic. Having conversations where I wasn't defending decisions or justifying pivots, but actually shaping direction. The kind of conversations where both sides leave smarter than when they arrived.

I could see how it felt. Building something that reached its intended finish line on purpose. Not by accident. Not by exhaustion. Not because investors forced an exit or the market window closed. But because I'd designed it to end well.

I could see the impact. Working with founders who were genuinely transforming—not just getting incrementally better at pitching, but fundamentally shifting how they thought about building their companies.

I could see the freedom. Time with my daughter. Non-negotiable. Where in the world I wanted to be. Peace of mind instead of 3am anxiety about burn rate.

But here's what shocked me: I couldn't see what I was actually doing for work.

I sat with that discomfort for weeks. Then months.

The Answer I'd Never Given Myself Permission to Want

It took three more months before the answer finally emerged clearly: I'd always wanted to be on boards.

Ever since my Uniseed days, I'd watched how board-level thinking shaped companies' trajectories. How the right questions at the right moment could save a founder years of expensive mistakes. How strategic clarity at the board level cascaded down through every decision in the business.

But I'd never given myself permission to even consider it as a real path.

Why? Because I was too busy surviving. Too busy building. Too busy proving I could do the next hard thing. Too busy with the CEO offers that looked good on paper.

I'd spent two entire businesses learning this the expensive way—you can read about that journey in my last newsletter if you missed it. But here's the critical insight I want to share as we close out 2025:

The clarity came from asking a different question.

Not "What should I do next in my career?" Not "Which opportunity is the best strategic move?" But "What does my actual life look and feel like on One Fine Day?"

Three Businesses, Three Different Levels of Clarity

Looking back now, I can see the pattern clearly:

Business #1: Four scientists pretending to be founders overnight. No process, no framework, but we figured it out as we went. Generated revenue. Even exited a few years later. But we had no intentional design—we were reacting our way to success.

Business #2: The 11-year marathon that taught me everything the hard way. I covered this in my last newsletter—the cap table trap, the fragmented assets, the burnout, the lupus. Everything that happens when you build without clarity on what success actually means to you.

Business #3—Capital Catalyst: Built with complete clarity from day one because I'd finally done the "One Fine Day" exercise first.

I knew what winning looked like. I knew what I wasn't willing to sacrifice. I knew my finish line before I took my first step.

And here's what that clarity has created:

• 7 portfolio companies in just 8 months

• Organic growth with no dilutive funding rounds

• High margins because I charge what I'm worth

• Freedom to work only with founders I want to work with

• Time with my daughter (non-negotiable)

• Peace of mind instead of startup anxiety

• A business that's built for the life I want, not the life I'm "supposed" to want

This isn't the exact type of business that suits everyone—you can also be building a fast-growing VC-backed startup if that's the company you want. The point isn't to copy my path. The point is to get clear on YOUR path before you start building it.

The Question No One Asks (But Should)

As you head into 2026, here's what I want you to sit with:

What does YOUR "One Fine Day" actually look like?

Not your startup's one fine day. Not what would make a great investor update. Not what sounds impressive at a conference.

YOUR one fine day.

What are you actually doing? How does it feel? Who are you with? What kind of conversations are you having? What problems have you solved? What are you NOT doing anymore?

Be specific. Be selfish. Be honest.

Most technical founders skip this step entirely because they're too busy:

• Chasing the next grant milestone

• Preparing for the next funding round

• Hitting the KPIs their board wants to see

• Building "impressive" things that don't actually lead anywhere meaningful

But you can't build a business that serves your life if you've never defined what that life actually looks like.

You can't make strategic decisions if you don't know where you're trying to go.

You can't know what to say "no" to if you haven't defined what you're saying "yes" to.

The Invitation

So here's my challenge to you to welcome 2026:

Clear your diary for one afternoon. Not a quick 30-minute exercise. A proper, uninterrupted afternoon.

Ask yourself: What does my One Fine Day look like? Write it down. Draw it. Voice-note it. Whatever format lets you actually see it and feel it.

Then ask: Am I building towards that? Or am I building towards what I think I'm "supposed" to build? What investors want to see? What sounds impressive?

Because here's what I've learned from working with 50+ technical founders this year:

The ones who transform aren't the ones with the best technology or the most funding or the most impressive CVs.

They're the ones who get crystal clear on what they actually want—and then have the courage to build towards it, even when it looks different from what everyone expects.

That level of clarity? That's what money can't buy. But it's exactly what exits are built on.

Until next time,
Vivian

P.S. If you're a technical founder who's raised $250K–$5M and realising your board isn't helping you think strategically about exits, let's talk.

I work with a select few of deeptech/healthtech founders per year as a board advisor. We start with the Exit Canvas, then I help you build the board-level strategic architecture to actually get there—the right investors, the right advisors, the right commercial partnerships, the right narrative for acquirers.

Two spots open for 2026. Reply to this email if you want to explore whether we're a fit.

(And if you're earlier stage or want to work through this with a peer cohort instead, Capital Catalyst reopens for applications in March 2026 - check the link.)

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P.S.S.S. Are we connected on LinkedIn? I’m here.

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