[joelennon]

Not a CEO but co-founded a company that had a successful exit. Happy to talk sometime.

One thing I'd say is to take anything you hear from any given indiviual with a pinch of salt. People love to give advice and will often sound authoritative about subjects they have no expertise in. Everyone's experience will also be different, and people tend to give advice based on their own anecdotes which may be completely irrelevant to you. You see it all the time where people try to mimic the actions of others who have had success, only for them to fail miserably trying to follow the same path. These conversations can shed interesting ideas and thoughts, but make sure you don't treat them as gospel and instead use them to help figure out your own view.