You don’t have to burn yourself out to build a successful business.

I learned that the hard way.

On paper, everything looked great.
✔ Built three businesses to $200M in revenue
✔ Bootstrapped a service business to $25M with 25 people in five years
✔ Scaled a VC-backed tech company to $28M ARR in under two years with just 12 people
✔ Made a double-sided consumer marketplace profitable in three months with a five-person team
✔ Raised $30M in venture capital

But behind the scenes, I was exhausted, constantly putting out fires, and convinced the business would fall apart if I stepped away.

So I pushed harder, thinking that was the only way.

Then life forced me to stop.

I ran headfirst into a glass window. A concussion took me out for eight weeks. No emails, no meetings, no problem-solving. For the first time, I couldn’t step in to fix things.

And when I came back, I was shocked. The business hadn’t just survived. It had thrived.

That moment forced me to question everything.

I always thought the key to scaling was working harder and building better systems. And systems did help. But what really made the difference wasn’t the business. It was me.

I had built a company that depended on me, not because it had to, but because I didn’t know how to let go. I believed that stepping back meant losing control. That if I wasn’t involved in everything, things would fall apart.

That belief had to change.

Learning to trust my team, step back, and stop being the bottleneck wasn’t easy. But once I did, everything changed.

The systems worked because I let them. My team thrived because I gave them space. And the business grew faster than ever, not because I was in every decision, but because I wasn’t.

Now, I help founders do the same.

Most founders come to me because they feel stuck. They’re scaling, but at the cost of their time, health, and freedom. It doesn’t have to be that way.

If you’re ready to build a business that grows without you being in the weeds, join me for daily insights on scaling, leadership, and personal growth.

Let’s get started.
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Let’s connect:
Email: hello@christinecarrillo.com
Twitter: @ChristineCarril

Christine Carrillo

in the second grade, my mom brought home a windows 98 desktop — that’s when i fell in love with technology.

i’m a founding recruiter who’s hired 500+ people across engineering, product, sales, and leadership — from your first founding engineer to your 300th hire.

for the last 7 years, i’ve been automating recruiting workflows, scaling hiring ops, sourcing candidates, and partnering with hiring managers at seed, Series A and Series B startups.

seasoned recruiters come to me to sharpen their digital skills. aspiring recruiters follow me to learn how i broke into tech, went fully remote, and earned $125k in my first year by building sourcing systems and automating the boring stuff.

i’ve recruited for dozens of companies — from ycombinator and techstars startups like drchrono, ashby, and laudable — to growth-stage teams hiring engineering and go-to-market talent.

by night, i perform standup comedy around austin, texas.

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