AI has changed how startups build, hire, and scale. Tasks that once needed full teams can now be done by software in minutes. Founders are choosing efficiency and automation over expansion. For one founder, the shift brought stronger margins but also one of the most painful periods of his career.
In a post on X, George Pu, founder of Founder Reality based in Canada, opened up about one of the most difficult chapters in building his company.
“We went from 14 people to 5 in 2023. Most painful moment of my career,” the caption of the post reads.
In the post, he said the team reduction was not a growth strategy but a survival move driven by revenue pressures and rising costs.
Financial win vs emotional toll:
Pu restructured his team from 14 to 5 in a single year. Instead of hiring again, he chose a different path. For the next two years, the company made no new hires.
Artificial intelligence replaced many roles that the team once believed required people.
“Used AI for everything we thought we needed people for,” he adds.
The 27-year-old founder highlighted that letting go of people and relying on AI had been one of his best financial decisions. According to him, technology handled far more than he had expected.
But he also described this phase as deeply emotional. He called it the “worst emotional experience” of his career, admitting that the financial gains did not ease the personal toll of reducing his team.
“Best financial decision I ever made. Worst emotional experience I've been through. Nobody talks about how lonely the lean path gets,” he wrote.
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Check out the post here:
Here's how people reacted to the post:
X users responded with a mix of support and concern. Many entrepreneurs said they related to the tough balance between financial survival and emotional strain.
One of the users commented, “Went through the exact same thing. The loneliness hit around month 3. Turned out I'd routed all my 1:1s through a summary bot and stopped having actual conversations for 11 weeks.”
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A second user commented, “This is the AI productivity story that doesn't get shared. The wins are obvious. The cost stays private because you can't celebrate efficiency while your former team is job-hunting.”
A third user commented, “AI replaced the output. It didn't replace the energy of people who gave a damn about what you were building.”
“Lean teams improve margins. AI increases leverage. But fewer people means more weight on you,” another user commented.