In partnership with
Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,
Every founder has their moment of reckoning. For Jonas Muff, it happened alone in a Tel Aviv hotel room, paralyzed during a critical funding round, while his mind spun endlessly and his body refused to move. In this episode, he takes us into the emotional architecture of that collapse, and his learnings from it.
Jonas isn’t just the founder of deep tech health startup Vara. He’s a founder who’s interrogated his drive to the core. In conversation, he speaks openly about identity threats, fear as a hidden engine, the myth of resilience, and the path to what he calls “lucid living.” Exclusively for our newsletter subscribers, Jonas has shared additional insights below.
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How to overcome your inner fears
What you will get out of this episode
In our conversation, Jonas shares:
How to distinguish between purpose-driven work and fear-fueled obsession
How to notice when your identity is hijacking your leadership decisions
How to integrate meditation, journaling, and long-term thinking into startup life
Why founders overthink - and how to escape the loop of self-story and uncertainty
and much more!
Our main take away’s
Breakdowns can be beginnings: Jonas’ collapse during a funding round wasn't just a low, it was the first moment he saw that the story he’d built his life around might not be real. Facing that opened the door to deeper self-awareness and sustainable leadership.
Fear often masquerades as drive: What Jonas thought was purpose was, in fact, fear—the fear of not being enough. Once recognized, that fear didn’t disappear, but it stopped steering the ship. The lesson: your most productive work may start where your ego loosens its grip.
