Ex-Startup CEO Struggling to Figure out What’s Next!

I am an ex-founder and CEO who started two companies. My first company sold for very little and the second one we raised millions and sold the IP where the founders again didn’t walk away with much.

I’m 26 and didn’t finish university. I had 8 courses left and now have decided to return and finish part-time.

I’m struggling to figure out what to do next. I’m burnt out even though it’s been a year since the exit and can’t be a CEO again for a while. I’ve been trying to interview for roles like Chief of Staff, VP Strategy, Product Management and partnerships but have struggled to secure anything. I applied to hundreds of roles but still haven’t gotten anything secure given my role as a CEO and all the things I did are not directly transferable and recruiters then skip over that.

I tried starting my own innovation consulting firm and had some initial success but I found the work mundane, lonely and boring.

I have an exceptional network of people I know who are founders and CEOs of unicorns, know multiple billionaires and in general a vast network that I am struggling to utilize to figure out what’s next.

I have an exceptional skillset of solving hard problems, ideating new business ideas and drilling down on figuring out the 0-1 of a business, I can easily raise millions but don’t want to become a network for others to exploit. I tried breaking into VC but given I’m a Canadian, the VC landscape here is brutal and moving to the US isn’t an option at least for the next 18 months.

I am a distinguished executive and entrepreneur with a background in banking, fintech, healthcare, marketplaces, payments, retail, government, and nonprofits. My expertise lies in product management, strategy, partnerships, operations, fundraising, value creation, financial planning, go-to-market strategies, and scaling ventures. I have a proven track record of recruiting and leading high-performing teams toward achieving exceptional outcomes but just don’t know how to apply this. I get overlooked also largely due to my age even though I have over a decade of experience given I started very young as a founder.

What should I do next and how should I go about finding or convincing others to make a role for me? I had initial success creating a strategy role for myself at a large multibillion dollar bank last year but that was short-lived given the bank lied about a lot of things and therefore I left that role.

Would love some advice? Feeling lost, lonely and highly depressed and feeling like I lack a sense of purpose.

I am optimizing for making money to recoup my bank balance, want to be somewhere or doing something that has an impact, want to work with A-star players and finally feel like I’m learning a ton.

Where should I focus?