I’m rounding the corner on two years at the startup I co-founded. For context, I do all the tech, my co-founder (also tech guy) does sales, BD, and all the “run

I’m rounding the corner on two years at the startup I co-founded. For context, I do all the tech, my co-founder (also tech guy) does sales, BD, and all the “run the business” tasks, and our one full time employee does talent development for our customers. We raised a pre-seed round in July of 2017. We’re fortunate in that we have had meaningful revenue from new customers every few months, so closing deals is a clear “moment to feel good.” However, I don’t think those “highs” are actually how we tend to celebrate most commonly between the three of us. Our first hire had a tendency to say to each of us, at random different moments of gratitude, “I appreciate you.” That sentence is so powerful and celebratory, we’ve integrated it into our common language between one another. When my co-founder is slogging through b.s. state paperwork for benefits, a simple: “I appreciate you” goes a long way. Because him getting over that hurdle IS a WIN, it just feels like Chinese water torture in the moment. Give it a try sometime with a team member who just gave you a great code review, or your partner in finance who just reviewed that crazy contract for you. Small wins abound, and showing appreciation is a great way to celebrate.