Hustle Nearly Cost Me Everything | Adrian Locher, Serial Founder and Investor

Feb 5, 2026

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What happens when the traits that make you win are the same ones that quietly undo you?

Most founders learn how to push. Few learn when stopping is the harder, necessary move.

Follow the Gradient sits down with Adrian Locher, Managing Partner at Merantix Capital, a multi time founder and early stage investor who has seen the cost of relentless ambition firsthand. After exiting a previous company, Adrian pushed harder than ever, until burnout, depression, and personal loss forced a reset .

This conversation explores how high performance actually works over decades, not months, and what founders miss when they treat endurance as a personal flaw rather than a design problem.

We talk about:

Burning out at the peak of success, not during failure
Why founders’ greatest strengths often become their most dangerous liabilities
The moment productivity collapses when fear quietly replaces curiosity
Separating family time and work to eliminate the constant guilt loop
Treating recovery as a non optional phase, not a reward
Leading teams by modeling boundaries instead of preaching balance

This episode is less about fixing habits and more about examining how founders relate to fear, ambition, and self worth when no playbook applies. It offers a lens for thinking clearly under pressure, before pressure turns personal.

Our biggest takeaways, including Adrian’s view on what founders misread about endurance:

https://followthegradient.io/p/adrian-locher-podcast-burnout

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Where to find Adrian Locher:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianlocher/

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🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.

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