Happy July friends!  🐛

When my friends and I apply to internships and jobs, we often face this “scary” word: rejection. I would like to think that although I’ve been rejected to more things than I can shake a stick at, I can keep myself composed and move on. Sometimes this is the case for low-stakes things, but for other things that take up a lot of time — it becomes difficult to separate yourself from this feeling of rejection and your sense of self worth.

In the past couple of weeks, not only have I been rejected from things I’ve applied to, I’ve also been facing the daily “rejection” of scrolling my LinkedIn feed and comparing myself to others my age who are doing super cool things.

What is this? Jealousy? Envy?

But also — happiness, excitement, and a grand sense of pride for the cool things happening in the world.

Jealousy and rejection are funny human feelings. This week, I thought we’d take a break from the one-shots and do a deep dive on navigating, interpreting, and integrating these feelings into our self-growth.

From my browser to yours, Aria

⏰ TL;DR

After repeated rejections from venues for an event I wanted to host, I found myself grappling with jealousy—not because others had success, but because someone chose them over me. It triggered a deeper reflection on comparison, recognition, and the emotional rollercoaster of ambition in the age of curated online success. From social media envy to questioning the value of validation, I’m left wondering: can we truly balance the drive to achieve with emotional well-being? Or are we stuck in a cycle of FOMO and attention-chasing for bags of money, forever?

Solo Founders Hibachi Dinner

Skip the 5-star restaurant for this group of peeps. We’re dining in style with a 3 hour curated event to bring solo founders in Boston together with a bit of heat.

You are:

• pre-revenue, pre-seed, or bootstrapping your venture.

• serious about scaling your work but looking for support from others who feel your same pains.

• excited to bring something to the table, not just take connections and feedback.

• a little weird and a LOT fanatic about what you’re building.

12 spots. 1 group. Friendships to last past the “Hello, I’m building…”

Want to get in on this? Intro yourself here and I’ll get back to you soon ✌️

Any questions? Feel free to respond to this email!

Upcoming Events I’m Hosting

• Health-Tech Funding Networking & Fireside Chat (finalizing venue, date coming soon): I’m bringing together 1 VC investor, 1 angel investor, and 1 founder who didn’t take either to scale their startup for an intimate fireside chat. The goal is to bring knowledge typically behind locked doors out into the open where attendees feel comfortable asking questions and have more guidance on where to go next in their journey. I’m finalizing the details now — stay tuned for the lu.ma invite soon!

• Founders & Explorers Masquerade Networking (finalizing venue, date incoming): I’m making networking not boring and bringing masquerading and gamification into the mix. The event will bring together people from all facets of the start-up ecosystem and meeting each other in… _n__al masks. We’re working backgrounds, exchanging knowledge and value first, not names and accolades. This will be end of July/early August.

• Solo Founders Hibachi Dinner Night (see above)

🔖 Bookmarks From Mine to Yours

• July 16 — In-person Breakthrough Summit of Prepare4VC start-ups, come support & watch the pitches of 10 ambitious founding teams transforming their respective industries from healthtech to edtech

• July 21 — Explore funding through a different lense with this crowdfunding 101 webinar

• How to monetize like a pro content creator (top takeaways from MAVN’s workshop)

• The Included VC Fellowship applications are open soon! Included VC Fellowship is a fully funded, 5-month global program designed to help individuals from underrepresented backgrounds break into venture capital. Through masterclasses, mentorship, investment simulations, and in-person summits, Fellows gain insider knowledge, hands-on experience, and a powerful global network. No prior VC experience required—just ambition, curiosity, and a commitment to diversity in tech and investing.

• Novo Nordisk terminates partnership with Hims & Hers, stocks drop 34% but still at a $11 billion market cap.

• Why the best pitch decks won’t save a flailing internal message and obtuse alignment

• The first study ever has found that psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, can increase cellular lifespan in aged mice

• What people are vibe coding, what people are using, and other fun ways of coding for practicality, not just 📈 📈 📈 

• Join a group of likeminded fxmales working in the start-up ecosystem for a monthly book club, in person in Boston

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“For what bothers me is not that you've "got" something that I want, nor, as we shall see, is it even so much the fact that you've gotten it from some third party; rather, what's important is that that particular party has freely given it to you rather than to me.”

— Jealousy by Daniel M. Farrell, 1980

Last week, I revealed the consistent rejections I was receiving from my inquiries to work with a local venue to host an event.

This introduced an upsetting feeling of failure, as I compared myself to many others who have been able to (presumably) partner with venues to host their event for free in exchange for visibility.

I also wanted to bring people together. I also wanted the recognition that I did that.

Is the recognition some kind of validation on what I’m doing?

I decided to do this deep dive because throughout the past few months developing my experience in event hosting, it’s exposed me to this feeling in ways I’ve rarely encountered before. It’s given me some low lows, and took me down from some high highs.

People love to say that the comparison is the thief of joy. Social media makes comparison easier than ever.

One night, I had thought of making a Chrome extension that would hide people’s names and profile pictures on LinkedIn so that I could freely browse my feed without feeling imposter syndrome.

And even then, why should I feel guilt over my own feed? Perhaps because it isn’t my feed? Because the algorithm is only showing me what it thinks I want to see?

What about the people who are able to regulate their emotions without feeling this sinking sense of esteem? Are they meditating or something else that makes it easier for them to read accomplishments and instead of saying “Oh, well that’s cool but I wanna do that too…”

Maybe this feeling is also because of how fake all the posts are. Talking about X number of people they worked with or hyping up what they’re doing. I’ve been in some of these backrooms and events. It all just feels like a constant stream of engagement bait. 24/7.

(spoiler alert: this continuous chemical reaction in your brain isn’t good for you)

This constant state of recycling FOMO.

Create anticipation. Create an artificial sense of well shit, everyone else is doing this, I need to as well!

Is that what we need to do to survive in our current state of the world? Surely, there’s a better way to handle this, maybe a better status quo? Constantly fighting for attention is what we need to do.

Is it what we should do?

Ambition | Balance

One thing that this reflection has lead me to was is there truly a way to balance wellbeing with a strong semblance of ambition? I think the answer depends on who you ask.

What do you think?

📰 Random Recommendations

•  A review of a book on how LSD has been used to vy for state or authoritarian power

• Watch The Studio (directed by the hilarious Seth Rogen) if you haven’t already. They’re up for a couple of Emmys that (as a non-cinema person, I believe is SUPER well deserved), and you should get into it before it gets spoiled.

Powering down, Aria ✌️