Starting a company is often romanticized. The "founder" title, the bold vision, the pitch decks - it all seems so glamorous and attractive. Yet no one talks about the other side: lonely late nights, unanswered questions, and the burden of carrying it all alone.
For solo founders especially, the load seems impossible to unpack:
There's no one to share the pressure with. Just you, wearing all the hats at once: salesperson in the morning, HR manager at noon, marketer by the evening, and finance lead at midnight.
This comes at a cost: missed opportunities, stalled growth, and eventually, burnout.
The obvious solution, hiring a team, feels out of reach. Specialists don't come cheap. Building even a small team too early can drain money, add risk, and slow everything down. Most founders can't afford it, even if they know they need it.
Throughout our experience at Collab Fabrik, we've seen this story play out too many times. Tale as old as time, as they say. That's why, through our own journey and years of working side by side with founders, we built Founder Support - a fractional team to carry the weight with you, long before hiring full-time is possible. This solution is born out of real struggles: talented entrepreneurs stretched too thin, unable to hire, yet needing a team to move forward.
After years of working alongside founders, we've noticed the same themes emerge, no matter the industry.
Founders lose too much time to non-core tasks. Instead of building products or talking to customers, their calendars are filled with administrative work. This leads to founder burnout. And it isn't just about long hours—it's about losing energy and focus that could've been spent on work that really matters.
The isolation is real. Loneliness among solo founders is a widespread challenge, with entrepreneurs reporting feeling isolated despite having large networks of transactional relationships. We've heard founders say: "I'm burning out. I'm exhausted, and I don't even know if my work is making a difference anymore."
Advice isn't enough. Countless founders have told us that coaching and guidance help for a while, but what they truly need is hands-on execution that adapts as they grow.
Take one founder we supported in Germany's e-commerce sector: he was running a D2C vitamin brand and juggling everything himself - customer support emails, Shopify updates, coordinating with a 3PL. Sales were solid, but every new order meant more late nights. By the time we met, he admitted: "I spend more hours fixing logistics and answering tickets than thinking about new products. That's not why I became a founder."
With our fractional support team stepping in—one person on daily customer service, another handling listings and logistics coordination - he regained 15–20 hours a week. Instead of being drained by operations, he was finally able to focus on marketing partnerships and product design again.
His story isn't unique. According to a 2024 survey by Entrepreneur, 53% of startup founders experienced burnout within the past year. Financial pressures only make the load heavier, and solo founders often face additional bias, with investors preferring multi-founder teams. As a result, smart entrepreneurs with strong ideas stall—not because they lack vision, but because they lack support.
As Armik Yordekyan, our founder, puts it:
"Founders rarely give up because their idea doesn't work. They give up because they're drained from doing everything alone. With Founder Support, we give them back time, focus, and the headspace to lead their business instead of being buried by it."
Collab Fabrik's Founder Support Service was built with one goal: to give founders access to the team they need, when full-time hires are still out of reach.
Instead of paying for specialists one by one, you get a fractional team that grows with your business:
Because Collab Fabrik also specializes in outstaffing services, we know how to quickly connect founders with the right expertise. Founder Support builds on that same strength, but tailored to the earliest stage, when money is tight and time is even tighter.
This way, you can focus on your vision, product, and customers, while knowing the essentials are taken care of.
With Founder Support, you get more than relief. You gain:
Greater focus on what matters – spend your time on product, customers, and strategy while we handle updates and admin.
Faster execution – web changes, LinkedIn activity, and system tweaks get done quickly, so you don't lose momentum.
Consistent online presence – your brand and founder profile stay visible and professional without you having to manage it daily.
Simple, reliable admin systems – processes are set up and maintained, so you avoid repetitive tasks and costly mistakes.
Cost control & predictability – you get support where it counts, without the overhead of hiring full-time staff.
Scalable support – start small and expand as your needs grow, whether that's more updates, more visibility, or more process support.
Peace of mind – instead of juggling everything, you know the essentials are being taken care of, freeing you to lead.
With Founder Support, what feels impossible working solo becomes possible with a team behind you.
Great ideas don't fail for lack of vision—they fail when founders are left carrying too much on their own.
Founder Support changes that. It gives you access to the skills you need without the cost of full-time hires—structured, flexible, and built for early-stage realities.
At Collab Fabrik, we've seen how the right support restores momentum: tasks move forward, decisions get faster, and founders find the space to lead again.
Explore Founder Support and see how it can give you the team you need when you need it.
Founders often lose 10–15 hours each week to website updates, LinkedIn content, and admin tasks. We step in to handle these responsibilities and set up systems so you can focus on growth, not repetitive work.
We begin with a free efficiency audit to understand where you're losing time. Then we run a 4-week, risk-free trial where we take on your core tasks. At the end, you decide whether to continue with us or transition to building your own team.
Not necessarily. Our approach is to first build the right processes. That way, if you bring in a Virtual Assistant or a small team later, they can plug in seamlessly without you having to start from scratch.
The starter package includes:
The starter package runs for 4 weeks and starts at $699. It's designed to provide measurable relief without requiring a long-term commitment.
Collab Fabrik also works in outstaffing, which means we know how to match founders with the right expertise quickly. Founder Support uses that same experience, but tailored to solo founders and very small teams who need affordable, flexible support.
Yes. If you decide to scale, we can help you find or train a VA who fits your workflows. We handle recruitment, onboarding, and even performance check-ins, so you can grow without adding extra stress.
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