Time, Fuel, & Money
Time, Fuel, and Money is a conversation for founders, investors, operators, and high-performers who want to understand the deeper forces that shape how we live, build, lead, and make decisions. Hosted by Deborah Moorad, Karim ReFaey, and Vassili Kotlov, the show blends neuroscience, psychology, business, energy, and human behavior—turning complex ideas into practical, emotionally intelligent frameworks.
Each week, we explore what really drives progress: alignment, awareness, relationships, incentives, momentum, and the hidden energy behind ambition. Through stories from biotech, venture capital, government, aviation, engineering, and everyday life, we break down how time, fuel, and money work together—and how they quietly shape careers, companies, and character.
This is not a hustle show. It’s a clarity show.
A place to think deeper, grow wiser, and operate with more intention—without losing your humanity.
New episodes weekly. Join us and rethink the rules.
Time, Fuel, & Money
When the Mission Gets Priced Out: Ethics, Emotion & the Money Trap
Why founders lose themselves when the market bends the mission
Episode 15 of Time, Fuel, & Money exposes the emotional and ethical cost of building companies in systems where incentives don’t align with patient impact. Deb, Karim, and Vassili unpack the quiet heartbreak of watching brilliant ideas stall under inflated budgets, misaligned investors, and “performative progress.”
They examine the tension between mission and market, the trauma of staying silent, the lure of valuation theater, and why early-stage capital often gets burned in all the wrong places. This episode gives founders a vocabulary—and a strategy—for building with integrity in a world obsessed with optics.
Topics:
- Mission vs. market pressure
- Emotional cost of misaligned incentives
- Capital misuse & performative progress
- Valuation theater in early biotech
- Building with integrity under investor demand