8 Sept 2026
EP 76 The word he uses instead of failure
For non-native English speakers who've ever felt like the funniest, sharpest version of themselves only exists in their first language, this conversation names something rarely said out loud.
Omer Haciomeroglu spent eleven years building a tech company in English, his second language, and slowly noticed a specific superpower wasn't translating: his humor. The timing, the cultural references, the split-second wit that builds trust with investors and teammates, all of it moved slower in English, and by the time the joke was ready, the room had moved on.
We talk about what he calls the chokehold, the fear-based overthinking that freezes even highly capable founders mid-sentence, the invisible stress most immigrant founders carry alone, and the breakdown at a dinner table that changed how he leads. We also get into why, after eleven years and two major breakdowns, he refuses to call any of it failure, and the forty-four years it took him to fully claim his identity as a sculptor alongside his coaching work.
This conversation is for you if you've ever felt like your personality gets lost somewhere between your first language and your second.
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📌 In this episode:
0:00 Introduction
1:01 Meet Omer Haciomeroglu
1:20 The "stolen superpower": losing his humor in English
4:10 "By the time you communicate, it's already late"
5:54 The engine brake: choking under high-stakes pressure
8:01 Years of stuttering and the inner work that changed it
10:12 Removing yourself from the equation
12:01 The 100 open browser tabs metaphor
12:46 Why simplifying reads as more competent, not less
14:39 Culture, communication styles, and adapting without losing yourself
16:42 The fear underneath every communication block
19:06 The overthinking chokehold
20:14 Intention versus expectation
22:53 The debrief: how real transformation actually happens
25:39 The five-minute grounding call
27:31 Scar tissue, not failure
29:58 The dinner where it all came out
31:49 44 years to say yes to being a sculptor
32:44 The fear of being seen
34:20 It's like breathing, you have to do it
35:34 Leaving the startup for breathing room
36:22 "And, not or": integrating art, tech, and leadership
37:22 Expression versus communication
38:25 Closing thoughts
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📌 About Omer Haciomeroglu:
Omer Haciomeroglu is a founder coach and contemporary artist based in Austin, Texas. Born in Istanbul, he studied in the US and has lived across California, Sweden, and Turkey. He spent eleven years as a tech founder in deep-tech product design, hardware, software, UI/UX, and industrial design, navigating two major breakdowns he now treats as raw material rather than failure. Today he advises deep-tech founders hands-on, from post-MVP through Seed to Series B, on execution and leadership. Alongside his coaching work, he is a self-taught sculptor working primarily in animal bones and epoxy clay, an identity it took him forty-four years to fully claim.
📌 Follow Omer: Instagram (@omerh.xyz) — https://www.instagram.com/omerh.xyz/ (https://www.instagram.com/omerh.xyz/) and LinkedIn (Omer Haciomeroglu) — https://www.linkedin.com/in/omerha/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/omerha/)
📌 More from Omer: https://omerh.xyz (https://omerh.xyz/) and https://www.qwake.tech (https://www.qwake.tech/)
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