You've been carrying most of this on your own.

When someone asks how the business is going, you give them the short version. The long version, with the decision you keep turning over and the hire you can't afford to get wrong, usually stays with you.

It stays with you because the people who could help with it are hard to find. They are other founders, a few steps ahead or right beside you, who will hear the long version and know what to ask.

Twelve is a long dinner at one table with those people. It is a night to say the long version out loud, to people who know exactly what you mean.