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.
—--
Curious to know more?
⚫️ Join my newsletter – Get insights on building big businesses with small teams. 
https://bit.ly/4h4PJNK

⚫️ The 20 Hour CEO – My playbooks, systems, and frameworks to help you scale without burnout.
https://bit.ly/4hTrItY

⚫️ 1:1 CEO Coaching – If you want direct guidance to break free from the grind, let’s talk. 

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

Christine Carrillo

Zeidler Group

Spearheaded the implementation of Keycloak, an open-source Identity Provider, to fortify authentication and ensure secure access across all our products. This involved a solo effort in handling the implementation and collaborating closely with cross-functional teams for successful integration. This achievement stands as a testament to my technical expertise and problem-solving abilities.

Notably, the successful implementation of Keycloak was a critical milestone that contributed to the seamless launch of key products, playing a pivotal role in advancing our business objectives.

Engaged in frequent grooming calls with stakeholders, demonstrating a strong commitment to aligning our product development efforts with strategic business goals.

Collaborated closely with product managers to make informed decisions on feature development and other aspects of the products.

Played a pivotal role in talent acquisition, contributing to the growth of our engineering team by actively participating in the hiring process. Additionally, provided mentorship to new engineers, empowering them with the knowledge and skills necessary for success. Conducted web application security presentations, imparting crucial insights to enhance the team's security awareness.

Principal Software Engineer

I demonstrated exceptional dedication and performance, which resulted in a unique opportunity to contribute to the company's global initiatives by working from the London office for a period of one year. This experience not only broadened my horizons but also allowed me to collaborate with international teams and gain a deeper understanding of global operations.

I took the lead in engineering and implementing a highly effective feature using Websocket. This feature enabled seamless real-time communication between the server and client, enabling users to collaborate and work simultaneously on different sections of the application without interfering with each other's progress. This innovative solution helped to enhance productivity and efficiency, greatly improving the overall user experience.

Built secure user account control (UAC) features into the products to exceed industry standards and achieved 100% compliance with best practices.

I collaborated with the Project Manager and Business team to understand the requirement and clearly defined feature sets into well-scoped user stories. 

I implemented a highly effective practice of using Docker for our Dev environment, which greatly reduced the effort and time required for onboarding new developers. Additionally, I automated the deployment process for our Staging and QA environments using Ansible, resulting in significant time and effort savings for our team.

Senior Software Engineer

I took charge of the entire initiative to transform a legacy monolithic Rails application, originally built with Rails 4, into a highly efficient API-based application backed by GraphQL and leveraging the latest versions of Ruby (2.6) and Rails (6.1). 

The comprehensive effort resulted in a remarkable 80% decrease in page load time, significantly enhancing the application's overall performance and user experience. Throughout the undertaking, I worked closely with the team, meticulously planned every aspect, and contributed hands-on development work to ensure its success.

Within a period of 6-7 months, I played a key role in developing and architecting multiple new features. My contributions greatly strengthened the company's product offerings and helped to expand its client base.

BoTree Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Managing and working with 3 teams in developing applications for different sectors like health, e-commerce and sales.

Handling client communication, involved in taking technical decisions, team collaboration and daily stand-ups.

Involved in the peer code review to managing the better quality of the code.

Technical Team Lead - Ruby on Rails

Working with Large scale E-Commerce Web applications, Advertisement Software and Insurance based domain. Developing the products using Ruby-2.2.x, Rails 4.2.x, 5.x , 6.x PostgreSQL, Spree Commerce, jQuery, HTML, CSS. Using AWS, Digital Ocean, Docker for deployment infra.

Sr. Full Stack Ruby On Rails Developer

RapidOps Inc.

Worked On the product - Minterapp (http://minterapp.com). Implemented various features using Ruby, Rails, jQuery, MySQL.

>   Implemented Timer Functionality where user can link project and its tasks using real time timer.
>   Implemented Subscription Management and Recurring Payment using Stripe Payment Gateway and managed proration fees.
>   Integrated Minterapp with Trello, Basecamp 3, Mailchip and Quickbooks using their APIs and Oauth2
>   Integrated new theme and revamped the design of the product.
>   Implemented Charts and graph using jQuery Plugin to visulize the data on dashboard page.
>   Increased the page loading speed using caching and optimized the database queries.
>   Used Amazon web services to implement SES feature.
>   Solved major bugs and made application bug free.
>   Developed Chrome Extension to Integrate Minterapp with Trello, Basecamp and Asana.

Software Developer (Ruby On Rails)

Solute TechnoLabs LLP

Solute TechnoLabs LLP is a premier Web and Mobile solution provider based out of Ahmedabad, India. We are a group of efficient and skilled people who deliver products with three things in mind

Design – Each and every product that we create is thought in an out. As many of our products are B2C and C2C, we provide a great emphasis on the user experience and interface

Technology – We use the latest, efficient and the best tools available in the market to provide a host of services.

Scalability – We build products that are built to last. As our products grow popular, we take great measures to make sure that the product built can handle very heavy traffic and design the products appropriately

Jr.Software Engineer (Ruby On Rails Developer)

A Principal Software Engineer with 8+ years of proven experience in backend development and application architecture. Having experience in developing and providing solutions for web products of every scale. Proficient programming skills in Ruby, Rails, PostgreSQL, Object Oriented Programming, and APIs. Familiar with Docker and various AWS services. Excellent ability to write clean, readable, and maintainable code. Having a strong passion and strength to solve complex and real-time problems with an agile approach. Team player with excellent written and communication skills and enjoys learning new technologies and tools if needed.

taplio

The Battle

Christine Carrillo

Sanjay Prajapati

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?