Two Founder Moms On Career Guilt and the Real Cost of Ambition

Parenting, apparently · Sep 24, 2026 · 45m

This week it's just Melissa and Esther — no guest, just the two of them, picking up a thread left over from last week's conversation about ambition: what were they actually chasing when they started Pok Pok, and is it still what they want?

Is founder guilt just parent guilt with a business attached to it? Can you really measure balance by the week instead of the day? And where's the line between setting a high bar for yourself as a leader and never actually clocking out?

Melissa and Esther get honest about what the company costs them and what it gives back — including the guilt they carry…