Kan: Startup failures and setbacks turned drinking into an escape mechanism
Justin Kan · Bonus: "How Twitch Co-founder Justin Kan Got Sober" from Imposters · Feb 15, 2022 · at 5:09
Twitch co-founder Justin Kan discusses how his relationship with alcohol evolved from college partying into an emotional coping mechanism during his early days as a founder in Y Combinator.
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“Started my first startup and I continued like drinking and it became, you know, it was also like a crutch. Like it wasn't just Okay. I'm going to like go party. It was like, I feel upset about something, right? Like there's something that's not going my way in the world. Like my company's failing or we didn't, we, someone quit or we lost his hire. And like, for me, drinking became this mechanism of being able to be avoided from reality, right? Like being able to escape the present.”
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