Hey there,

The message came through WhatsApp.

“Patrice, I’m hosting an event with Anthropic and a private dinner. Come!”

My stomach dropped.

I looked up flights immediately, and put them in the cart. Cursed the price OUTLOUD. Hovered over BUY.

And couldn’t click on it.

Let me back up really quick.

The quick context if you don’t have the same social algorithm as I do (praying for my fellow FOMO afflicted that you don’t) is that once a year in June, the biggest brands, agencies, media companies, creators and marketing minds descend on the South of France for Cannes Lions.

It’s equal parts dystopian, cringe and THE BEST THING EVERRRRRRR.

Some of you might recall that last year I went with no plan (which was unhinged I learned)… no real strategy, didn’t know you needed to be on a list to literally breathe and definitely didn’t have the foresight to activate dancing flamingoes holding tarot cards with our logo in a booth on The Croistette (a real gap in my event planning and one I swore I wouldn’t repeat.)

I told myself I would not go back without a proper plan and a conviction that I would not be deduced to tears outside the Yahoo happy hour I could not get into (AT 4PM.)

The broken strap on a friend’s straw bag that dumped the entire contents as I was approaching the Yahoo stand did not help my fragile mental state as I had a hard time discerning between my tears and the gallons of sweat in the 102 degree heat. (I’m sorry again Shirley.)

And yet…..

That chaotic, unplanned trip landed me investor relationships and confirmed something I didn’t even know I needed to confirm at that point: that the AI space needs a lot more of us in it. Us being NOT the status quo.

But I had already decided months ago that Cannes 2026 was not where we’d be focusing on.

So when that WhatsApp message landed -from one of my investors, someone who genuinely believes in what me and Vee are building with My StoryPro I spiraled a bit.

I have to go, this will look so bad to her if I don’t come.

But there were other things at play here aside from the “well guess we’re going to Cannes again sorority girl bar crawl style even though I said we wouldn’t be doing that this year”

It was my middle son’s end-of-year school performance.
The one he’s been working on all year.

The one where that very morning he proudly handed me a letter that I had no clue what it was and went straight to Google translate…(TRYING to learn here but Portuguese is seriously so hard and oh it was an invite.)

Going to Cannes meant I would miss this.

Every time I thought about telling him I would ACTUALLY start to tear up.

But if you’re a REAL founder Patrice you’d MAKE. IT. HAPPEN. Why are you being so soft. Real founders in the AI space who want to be successful go where they need to be. It’s for the greater good. STEP UP PATRICE. IT’S ANTHROPICS!!! GO

Bria, Sydney, Dallia and my husband Olly…I’m sorry you cannot ever get back that time in your life that you had to listen to me. (what can I say I’m a bit of a crowd sourcer before I ultimately make a decision to the utter dismay of my husband who can say YES or NO on a dime with ZERO outside input. Is that not psychopathic??)

So I decided to also angst to my investor and I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous hitting send. Would she think I wasn’t serious enough? Would she regret her investment?

“I want to be there so bad. But I’d have to miss ***insert my middle son’s name performance. I know it sounds crazy.”

Her response came back in under two seconds.

The person I’m raising money FROM just told me to skip a very impressive room she was hosting… to watch my kid perform possibly not even in English🫠

And then my other investor said the same thing.
They get it.

That’s not the founder story we’ve been sold and I’ve worked on a LOT OF founder stories in my career so there is a version that is basically gospel.

You know the script.

Sleep in your car, at your desk, miss the recital (they’re young! They won’t remember anyway). Wear your suffering like a badge (BTW if you go to Cannes you’ll need MOUNTAINS of badges please register) then go post that suffering on social media and tell us how you are taking out a line of credit, mortgaging your house and (tearfully please) down to your last….$10 in your account.
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In other words, grind until something breaks.
(and it’s always you.)

But here’s a dirty little secret from the front lines of being a founder and still coaching a lot of them privately on their storytelling skills.

That story isn’t attractive anymore.
Full stop.

And more importantly I don’t think it’s the only way to build something real – even in the AI tech space which moves at lightening speed.

Here’s what I’ll say… every single investor in My StoryPro has come from our user base.

People who use the tool, believe in what it does, believe in keeping two women in the build space – and decided to put money behind it.

It’s slower to raise this way, but the right people don’t need you to sacrifice everything to prove you’re serious.

They already know.

You just have to find your people.

Speaking of finding your people —

My friend Kar Brulhart is running her inaugural mastermind called the Revenue Studio which is a year-long experience and today is the last day to get in on the action. (so at least reach out if you’re interested.)​

Organic first, ads later (she will show you everything and make sure you’re doing it “right”.)

She builds profitable online selling systems for people with small audiences and a desire to go against the grain (it’s why we’re friends!) and she does it with a level of hands-on involvement (and her ex-Google husband who runs the Ad clinic inside) that should cost five times what she charges.

If you’ve been spinning on your offer, your messaging, or how to actually make consistent money from your services or digital products… this is the room I’d point you to.​

I’ve seen what happens when you’re in the right room with the right humans.
It changes things.

And bonus if you have humans who let you crash at their corporate-carded hotels like last year in Cannes because they want to alleviate some of your start-up suffering!

And while I’m wrapping this up from my Lisbon apartment, not the Croisette —
​
My middle son is performing around the time this will be landing in your inbox…and while I know I will understand very little, I think I understood the assignment.
​
Cannes, we’ll see you in 2027!
​
XO
Patrice