> I was now in charge of a small team of developers, and our startup has made many promises to many partners This was the problem. I saw it myself in one place

> I was now in charge of a small team of developers, and our startup has made many promises to many partners This was the problem. I saw it myself in one place. The sales guys go out and promise the moon on a stick. After all, they're incentivised to sell, and the won't be one ones stressing to get the job done. They probably have no clue that that one feature they've just agreed to is massively complicated and probably not that important anyway. Unless a decision is made with the CTO/an architect in the loop, forget it. If it was and is unreasonable just tell them and then forget it. You only get stressed if you accept other peoples' made up deadlines. They probably get you to do this with the promise of a meagre bonus or something. Just don't buy into any of that nonsense. The other source of stress for a founder is the illusion of control. Just do what you can and keep shipping. It's a marathon. Be kind on yourself.