Kanak Parihar has always been someone who speaks with rare honesty about the world of entrepreneurship. As the Co-Founder of Linkvenza, she has witnessed firsthand both the shining successes and the invisible struggles that shape business journeys. In her recent LinkedIn post, Kanak Parihar does something few leaders dare to do she opens up about loss, failure, and the unspoken hardships behind the glamorous narratives of entrepreneurship.
Kanak Parihar begins her post with a stark confession: her company just lost its biggest client, wiping out 40% of their revenue overnight. Not due to poor delivery, but because the client who happened to be a close friend and a founder himself had to shut down his own business. His parting words, as recounted by Kanak Parihar, were heartbreakingly candid: his company had dwindled from 50 employees to 12, churn rates were devastating, and he hadn’t even had the courage to tell his spouse the truth about their declining fortunes.
In a world where founders are often celebrated only when they hit milestones fundraises, IPOs, expansions Kanak Parihar reminds us that entrepreneurship is also about facing the dark days. She mentions how her friend once scaled his company to an impressive $90M ARR, yet even such monumental success did not make him immune to collapse. For Kanak Parihar, this is a hard but necessary truth that more people need to hear.
What Kanak Parihar drives home is that the narrative of entrepreneurship is often incomplete. The stories that populate our feeds highlight the triumphs: new office spaces, Series A rounds, big acquisitions. But they rarely mention the burnout, the stagnant months, the office furniture listed on OLX, or the last video call with a dwindling team. Kanak Parihar points to the silent funerals of startups those quiet endings that never make it to the LinkedIn spotlight.
The candor of Kanak Parihar’s reflection stands out. Instead of offering empty platitudes or polished soundbites, she gives voice to the many entrepreneurs silently wrestling with uncertainty, debt, and exhaustion. Kanak Parihar acknowledges the sleepless nights founders endure, worrying about payroll, about team morale, about the viability of their vision. She understands the quiet despair of showing up every day when growth has stalled and hope is fraying at the edges.
What’s powerful in Kanak Parihar’s message is her insistence that effort is not always enough and that’s okay. Building something meaningful does not guarantee eternal success, and the collapse of a venture does not invalidate the work poured into it. By stating “just because it didn’t work, doesn’t mean you didn’t,” Kanak Parihar extends empathy to every entrepreneur navigating difficult seasons.
Kanak Parihar’s call to normalize conversations around these struggles is vital. Entrepreneurship has long been painted as a heroic, linear climb to success. But as Kanak Parihar emphasizes, behind every glossy success story lies an untold version of setbacks, pivots, and sometimes, closures. Her advocacy for honest storytelling doesn’t diminish the victories it enriches the narrative by acknowledging the resilience required to even step into the arena.
It is also a quiet reassurance. By saying “you’re not alone,” Kanak Parihar validates the emotions many entrepreneurs suppress. The pressure to appear invincible often isolates founders. Kanak Parihar offers an alternative: a space where vulnerability is not a weakness but a reflection of how deeply people care about what they are building.
Kanak Parihar’s leadership at Linkvenza is undoubtedly shaped by this balanced outlook. She does not sugarcoat the entrepreneurial path, but neither does she romanticize failure. Instead, Kanak Parihar offers realism infused with compassion a combination that resonates in today’s startup ecosystem where mental health and sustainability are gaining overdue attention.
What sets Kanak Parihar apart is her ability to speak directly to the hearts of entrepreneurs without resorting to clichés. Her words do not flatter; they affirm. They suggest that success isn’t only measured by ARR figures or investment rounds, but also by the courage to try, to persist, and to gracefully accept outcomes beyond one’s control.
In the end, Kanak Parihar’s message serves as a reminder that entrepreneurship, like life, is multifaceted. For every celebrated launch, there is a quiet shutdown. For every headline-grabbing fundraiser, there is a sleepless founder trying to keep things afloat. And as Kanak Parihar rightly notes, we need to bring these hidden chapters into our conversations.
By doing so, as Kanak Parihar encourages, we build a more empathetic, realistic, and supportive entrepreneurial community one where showing up, even in the face of uncertainty, is recognized as its own form of success.
