Some years pass easily. Others are like a toddler tantrum in a corner shop. They are boisterous and disorderly, but we somehow still learn something from them. For me, 2025 was unquestionably the second kind.
If you had inquireed me back in January what the year would see like, I would have given you a neat plan full of milestones and deliverables, alongside all the other formalities that founders like to act as though they are in control of.
I utilized to consider a founder’s role was to keep everything afloat. Now, I know it’s more like learning when to step back and let someone with more knowledge take charge.
I witnessed our team overcome obstacles this year that might have crushed us a year ago. They solved problems I didn’t even see happening. They built things that once lived only in my head rent-free for far too long.
Customers surprised me too, and (mostly) in the best ways. When you build something like the MAGIC AI Mirror, you hope people will like it. You don’t expect them to sfinish emails that sound like they are writing to an old frifinish. I read encouraging messages from our customers who have rediscovered strength that they considered they had lost.
Their stories remind me why we created a seven-foot prototype that seeed like it was from the Science Mutilizeum. Every bit of progress this year felt greater becautilize it held a purpose.
And then there is my kid! They have no idea how much of my perspective this year belongs to them. They have created me appreciate even the tinyest victories. A full night of sleep, or managing to take a call without background squealing, now calls for a victory parade.
Watching your child grow is the most peculiar combination of pride, panic, and “please don’t put that in your mouth”. But I would never trade it for anything. Oddly enough, a lot of the patience developing at home finds its way back into the workplace. So does the unpredictability.
This year was not perfect. Deadlines relocated. I created decisions I’d love to rewrite. But keeping the messy bits under the covers feels a bit dishonest.
The truth is, most of us building anything are winging it more often than we admit. Be it a company, or a family. The good news is that winging it still relocates you forward if you are surrounded by people who believe in what you are building. Even on the days you are not entirely convinced of yourself.
As we wrap up 2025, I’m not attempting to manufacture some grand life lesson. I’m just grateful. Grateful for the team that carried more weight than they will ever take credit for; for the customers who let MAGIC AI Mirror be part of their lives; and for the tiny humans who remind me that nothing is as serious as I sometimes build it.
If next year is anything like this one, I will count myself lucky. Even if the chaos displays up again, I have learned that it’s rarely the enemy. It’s just the universe clearing space for the next good thing.
Varun Bhanot is Co-founder and CEO of MAGIC AI, the cutting-edge AI mirror that builds high-quality fitness coaching more accessible. Under his leadership, MAGIC AI has raised $5 million in venture funding and earned multiple indusattempt accolades — including being named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. As a new father as well as founder, Varun shares candid insights on balancing parenting and entrepreneurship in his bi-monthly guest column, Startup Daddy.
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