If you’re going to B-Sides and / or RSA you will go through a massive dopamine spike which will cause a massive dopamine crash. The implications of this crash will affect your company.
Here’s why:
Most of us are cranking it out behind laptops at all hours with a few meetings on zoom here and there, and some work engagements outside. These are somewhat controllable environments with manageable stimulation. You decide when to engage and when to disappear.
RSA is the exact opposite of that.
40,000 people. Six to eight hours of walking per day. Constant novelty, new faces, ideas hitting from every direction, after parties, dinners, invites with the pressure to be on while also being genuinely curious and not annoying about it.
All of that increases dopamine massively.
I study longevity and stall signals in early stage startups. That means I talk to a lot of founders. Founders who have been in and out of the ER. Sometimes they text me the same day. I also ended up in the ER with congestive heart failure (clean labs).
This is not a hypothetical.
When RSA ends your body is going to need an adjustment. That adjustment is called a crash. Don’t fight it. It’s your body telling you it spent more than it generated. This will hit everyone, not just introverts, but introverts have to deal with the social pressure on top of everything else.
When the crash happens:
The burnout acceleration: Push through the crash → borrow from tomorrow → compound depletion → founders who end up in ERs.
The decision making problem: Depleted dopamine = worse decisions. The week AFTER RSA when you’re supposed to be following up on leads, closing deals, making strategic calls, your brain is running on empty. The most important execution window gets sabotaged by the crash.
The isolation spiral: After intense social stimulation, introverts especially want to disappear completely. Which looks like avoidance to everyone around them. Leads to dropped follow-ups, ghosted connections, missed opportunities. The crash makes you want to hide exactly when you should be following up.
The immune system hit: Sleep disruption + physical exhaustion + stress hormones = compromised immune system. Conference flu is a real thing. Founders get sick right after big conferences because their bodies finally stop running on adrenaline.
The identity crash: For founders specifically, you’ve been performing confidence and competence for 3 days straight. When the crash hits and you feel like garbage, the inner voice goes “see, you’re a fraud, you were just performing.” That’s not true but depleted brains go there. 🖤
The crash is not failure. It’s physics.
Your brain ran a marathon. It needs to recover the same way a body needs to recover after
physical exertion. You wouldn’t run a marathon and then go to the gym the next day. Same principle.
- Rest IS productivity — you’re consolidating everything you learned
- Silence IS follow-up prep — you’re rebuilding the capacity to execute
- The crash IS the signal that you showed up fully — it means you were present
Practical permission structure:
- Schedule 2-3 low demand days after RSA before expecting full output
- One follow-up per day maximum the first week back
- Sleep without guilt
- Eat real food
- Walk
But you can prepare.
The week before:
- Break exercise into smaller chunks. I try to do a mile after each meal. Keeps your dopamine baseline steady.
- Hydrate more than you think you need to
- Eat real meals, load up on protein (bring snacks)
- Sleep more than usual, build a reserve
- Reduce social obligations now so you’re not already depleted walking in
During RSA:
- Eat real food. Not just muffins and coffee. Coffee is borrowing from the future.
- Water constantly
- Build in 20-30 minutes of quiet each day even if it’s just sitting outside
- Walk after meals if you can
After:
- Rest. Schedule it. Don’t fight it.
- You earned it.
I’m going to BSides AND RSA, six days total. I’m not saying this from a distance. I’m preparing right alongside you 🥰
The people who follow up best after RSA are the ones who rested first. The ones who push through crash depleted send bad emails, make bad impressions, and waste the connections they just made.
Rest is the strategy.
Take care of yourselves!
Love you 🫶,
RL
— Rhea Lynn Mascarinas
GTM Strategist, QuietConversion
© 2026 QuietConversion. All rights reserved.
One response to “RSA PSA: We’re About to Exit Founder Tunnel Mode”
[…] were just performing.” That’s not true but depleted brains go there. 🖤”In my RSA PSA article.Writing this is helpful too.Absolutely randomly my operator / research assistant texted me out of […]