Road Warrior in Training: The Founder Life You Don’t See on TV

On TV, the founder CEO has a corner office and a sweeping view.

My view was the seatback in front of me. Last row. Middle seat. Negotiating for an armrest. My suitcase wasn’t full of the latest fashion, instead, Palona brochures and swag. My clothes were traveling on standby.

Fourteen days: Phoenix, Seattle, Dallas, Salt Lake City, home to San Francisco for meetings, then Columbus, Ohio, Palm Springs, and home again.

Crossing America can take most of a day. I knew this in geography. I now understand it in my lower back.

Phoenix brought a conference, beautiful cacti, and serious heat. The cacti looked unbothered. I admired their ability to thrive in their chosen market.

In Seattle, more face-to-face conversations with our partner at Toast. Building an AI company involves a surprising (but wonderful) amount of physically being into the same room as our partners and clients.

Face-to-face time, between flights.

​
Dallas brought the Restaurant Catering Workshop: a roomful of people figuring out how to grow their catering businesses, and plenty for me to learn.

The Restaurant Catering Workshop, Dallas.

In Salt Lake City, a magnificent pepperoni pizza received the photographic attention normally reserved for a major product launch. Research. Obviously. 🤤

Utah: important industry research.

Then San Francisco for meetings. Home had become a stop on the itinerary (where I could quickly do some laundry).

In Columbus, seeing Palona’s name beside Pizza Cloud’s on a giant screen made me stop and smile.

Palona and Pizza Cloud at Pizza Expo in Columbus.

In Palm Springs, our team was introducing Sierra to the Mountain Mike’s community, surrounded by laptops, hats, tote bags, and brochures.

Introducing Sierra to the Mountain Mike’s community.

The photos capture the smiles. My body remembers the itinerary.

The Palona team at Mountain Mike’s.

My years in engineering never required this much travel. I’d visit distributed teams or attend a conference, then return to a relatively stationary working life. I’m getting better at this.

Do I love it? Hate it? Neither. I’m excited to see clients and listen to operators. The logistics are challenging; the physical toll is real.

This pace is seasonal, and for us, necessary. Restaurants are deeply human businesses. Early on, a founder needs to hear the questions firsthand and spend time with the people trusting her company. I can’t outsource my part in that.

A few lessons from the road:

• Eliminate connections whenever possible. Book nonstop. Fewer opportunities for plot twists with connections.
• Take the very earliest flight. Statistically, the first flights of the day are the least likely to be delayed.​
• Use flights to recover. Close the laptop. Rest. I understand the theory better than I practice it.
• Walk the airport. When there’s no gym or trail, another lap around the terminal counts. My current fitness program includes “another lap before boarding.”

Fourteen days later, I’m home. Tired, more practiced, and overwhelmingly glad that I went.

The suitcase carried the brochures. I brought home the conversations.

Road warrior in progress. Sleeping on planes remains an unsolved engineering problem. 🥱

#founderslife

​
​