Building It Your Own Way: Confidence Without the Playbook

Join Molly Baker for an honest conversation about building a business from instinct rather than a master plan. From getting laid off during a tech sales role to hosting a health and wellness conference with over 300 attendees, this guest shares how one bold decision led to another, eventually landing her at the helm of a company helping people navigate peptides safely. Together they explore the value of patience over hustle, how a strong co-founder relationship shapes company culture, and why letting reality reveal itself often leads to better decisions than forcing an outcome. The episode also dives into imposter syndrome, entrepreneurial family patterns, and what it really takes to build something from scratch. Whether you're navigating a career pivot or building your own company, this conversation offers a grounded reminder that the path rarely looks the way you expect it to.

MB (Molly Baker): Sharing your location, trendy or tragic?

DLG (Delphine Le Grand): Trendy. I love to share my location. I'm one of those people who collects everyone else's too. When I open Find My Friends I get this comforting feeling, like all my people are close by. Not in a stalker way, hopefully, but it's comforting.

MB: Networking events?

DLG: Cuts both ways. If it's done well and focused on genuine relationships, that's trendy. But most networking events feel transactional, which is tragic. Each city has its own flavor, in LA it's how many followers do you have, in San Francisco it's who did you raise from or what company do you work for. New York feels a little more balanced, more of a variety of characters, which is probably why I live here. So I'm biased.

MB: Manifesting?

DLG: Trendy. I'm super into it. I believe in it. I don't think manifesting necessarily hands you the outcome you're looking for, but the exercise itself puts you in a more open headspace. If done well, it's less about the final outcome and more about how you feel day to day.

MB: Digital detox?

DLG: Trendy. We need it. We're so plugged into the matrix.

MB: Having an AI best friend?

DLG: I'm honestly torn on that one. I would have said tragic before, but now I lean more trendy. It's helped me think through certain areas of my life.

MB: So without telling us who you are, what's top of mind for you professionally?

DLG: Peptides. It's on a lot of people's minds right now, not just mine. The biggest challenge is how to create an experience that helps people cut through the noise. You hear about peptides everywhere, but who do you trust, and how do you even get started? What we're building is hopefully a service that can support people through that.

MB: What are you really good at? Brag about yourself.

DLG: For me it's always been about people and building relationships. I started my career in FinTech, working at Stripe as an accountant, which feels like a past life now. For a long time I tried to be someone I wasn't. Across different roles, I kept gravitating toward relationship building, and in that first career it wasn't really rewarded, so it felt like I was fighting against myself. The beautiful thing about entrepreneurship is that you get to create your own world, one where you can actually shine. The last few years have been about figuring out what brings me energy and joy, and it's been people, relationships, and partnerships. At the end of the day, a company is just a collection of people working toward the same goal, and that's where this has really served me well.

MB: I agree. That's one of the best things about being an entrepreneur, you get to shape shift into the things you're actually good at.

DLG: Exactly. One thing I've found really interesting is that I assumed if I started my own thing I'd have major imposter syndrome. I really haven't. I felt a lot more imposter syndrome in my previous, more corporate roles, even though those were technically easier. When you're building something from scratch, you're not trying to format yourself to fit anything. If I can be honest about my strengths and weaknesses, I can find someone who shines where I don't, and bring the right people into the room for the best outcome.

MB: What has been the most pivotal moment in your career?

DLG: Probably being laid off, honestly. After Stripe I joined an early stage startup in a tech sales role, and about six months in I was already thinking about what I actually wanted to do. I was scared to make the leap myself, so getting laid off felt like a disaster at the time. Looking back, I don't think I would have made this transition without it. You can't perfectly architect that chain of events. It just happens, and then you rise to the opportunity.

MB: Did you start your own company right after getting laid off?

DLG: Oh my god, no. I wish it were that simple. A bit of a crazy story, six years before that I did a 21 day water fast under medical supervision. I wanted a reset, and to push the limits of my mind and body. I signed up for a five week stay at a retreat called True North that treats people through water fasting and whole food, plant based eating. I'd planned to only do 10 days, but after my doctor did my bloodwork he said I was a candidate for the full 21. I figured if I was ever going to do it, it should be there, under supervision. I completed all 21 days, and it was eye opening, not just physically, but in proving to myself that if you set your mind to something, you can do it. After that I became fascinated with fasting and detox.

DLG: So when I got laid off, I thought about building some kind of retreat center around fasting. I went back to True North just to learn more about their process, though I quickly realized how hard the business itself would be. Around that time I was meeting a lot of people in health tech and going to a lot of those networking events, which I hated. They felt like conventional healthcare with a tech layer on top, focused on sick care rather than root cause or optimal health. At one point I thought, I love bringing people together, so what if I just ran my own health and wellness conference?

DLG: I posted the idea in a Slack channel for people in health tech, looking for a space, and a guy named Barry, who was chief of staff at Noom at the time, offered up their offices in Hudson Yards. Through a mutual friend I got connected to Julie Rice, the founder of SoulCycle, and once she signed on as a speaker, securing others got a lot easier. We called it HealthCon, a one day event with doctors speaking on the fundamentals of health, sleep, nutrition, and exercise, and over 300 founders, investors, operators, and MDs attended. It gave me an understanding of the landscape and a network almost overnight.

DLG: Through that I got connected to a longevity clinic in the city that wanted to run more events and partnerships and needed someone to lead it internally. I took that role, and that's where I met my co-founder, Cindy. The first week I started, we were sponsoring the Brian Johnson Don't Die Summit together, shared a hotel room in San Francisco, and really bonded. I had no idea at the time that we'd eventually start something together. When I was laid off, there wasn't a grand plan, it was just following the thread and what felt right, after ten plus years doing something that wasn't aligned. It was scary and destabilizing at times, but I just kept following the thread.

MB: That's an amazing story. You mentioned you don't suffer from imposter syndrome, and you've taken a lot of risk along this journey. How did you build that confidence and trust in yourself?

DLG: Some key people in my life had a big influence. My parents are entrepreneurs, they run a plant based food company, so I grew up in a very entrepreneurial household. I think part of why I went down a more traditional path early on was almost a reaction to watching how hard that life was for them. Deep down I always had a sense that path wasn't mine, even without knowing what my actual path was, so I spent a lot of time feeling stuck. When I started on this path, I was also dating someone who is a founder himself, and he really encouraged me throughout. Between him and my parents, I don't know that I'd be doing this today. Surrounding yourself with people who tell you that you don't need a perfect plan, you just need to move the needle a little further every day, makes a real difference.

MB: I can relate to that. My dad is also an entrepreneur, and I went to college for social work because I thought I was rebelling against that world, and then ended up in marketing anyway and got the bug.

DLG: When you get it, it's great.

MB: It's funny looking back at your parents and realizing the patterns repeat, even when you think you're going to be so different.

DLG: Turns out not that different. And you realize everyone is figuring it out. There's no playbook, no perfect business plan, it's just taking the next step, and then the next one.

DLG: When I was first laid off, I found an exercise online where you ask a series of questions to the people who know you best, and through their answers you find the common denominator, your superpower. I did it with my partner at the time. A lot of the answers pointed to people and relationships, things I already knew. Then he flipped it on me and asked, if you had one big crazy dream, what would it be? I said I'd love to start a retreat center to help people with their health. He asked what was stopping me, and worked through every objection I threw at him. By the end I didn't have any excuses left. So often we craft stories about why something is impossible, and once you actually work through them, you realize it might be possible after all. Especially now, with all the tools available, there are fewer excuses than before.

MB: Okay, so tell us who you are and your business.

DLG: My name is Delphine, co-founder of Protocol. We help people navigate peptides through personalized protocols and guidance.

DLG: The space is exploding right now. Everyone wants to know what peptides can do for them, but it's a confusing space, and people don't know who to trust. That's what Protocol solves for. My co-founder Cindy and I experienced this firsthand at the longevity clinic where we worked, we used peptides ourselves and had a great experience, but saw clear gaps, access to high quality, safe compounds, and the guidance piece. After we both left, we reconnected and knew there had to be a better solution.

MB: How long ago was that?

DLG: About a year, which feels crazy given how much has happened in the space since.

MB: Can you break down peptides in layman's terms?

DLG: Peptides are short chain amino acid blocks, kind of like the building blocks of your body, and they help with specific functions. Saying peptides is a bit like saying supplements, there's GLPs, growth hormone peptides, regenerative peptides, and they all serve very different functions. With Protocol, we guide people through that based on their health history and goals, since everyone's protocol looks different.

MB: I know what peptides are at a high level, but the idea of injectables freaks me out a little. How does the process actually work, do people do labs with you first?

DLG: We're building a more in-depth program called Precision Protocols with full diagnostics. Right now, people can share labs with us, but it's not mandatory, it's mostly focused on goals as a first step. Once people get started, more questions come up, is this bump at the injection site normal, is disrupted sleep part of the process, should I adjust dosing. That's where we act as an ongoing sounding board, and with the AI tools available now, we can be far more personalized than would have been possible even a year ago.

MB: You're in a subject matter space that's moving fast, and a tech space that's moving fast too. How do you manage speed versus prioritization?

DLG: We were lucky to be in this space before it got big. Now I see a new peptide company or pitch deck almost every day, usually from people who haven't been in the space very long. Because Cindy and I have been in it a few years, we have more institutional knowledge. We know we want to solve two things, access to quality compounds and guidance, and we want to be the best at peptides specifically rather than chasing every adjacent diagnostic trend. Even with everything moving fast, the underlying direction stays the same, so every piece of feedback gets filtered through, how does this support a better member experience.

MB: No shiny object syndrome.

DLG: Trying not to. It needs to fit the plan or it's not relevant. This is a marathon, not a race, and patience is really undervalued right now. One of my mantras is let reality reveal itself. When you want an outcome so badly and you're holding on too tight, you're not in the best headspace to make good decisions. Being a little more patient and letting a situation evolve naturally usually gets you the answer anyway. It helps avoid painful decisions, like rushing to fill a role with the first person who seems good enough instead of waiting for the right one. That said, it's a balance, the space is about to get hyper competitive, so you do have to move with urgency too.

MB: I had to learn that with Indie too, that feeling of trying to control everything and force it, when really you have to let the game come to you a little.

DLG: Completely agree. You're creating something out of nothing, so you want to give it shape, but beyond that you can't control it perfectly. A lot of suffering comes from attaching happiness or success to one specific outcome. I try to focus on enjoying the ride instead. One of the biggest pieces of this whole journey has been building it with Cindy. She's my best friend, and if I wasn't building this with her, it would suck. This past winter we spent two and a half months living and working together in Costa Rica, basically doing everything together. It's almost like a marriage, and for us it brought us even closer, even through some uncomfortable conversations. The health of your company depends on the health of your relationship with your co-founder. If we're not aligned, that shows up everywhere, with the team, with our members. So staying locked in with her is something we're both really intentional about.

MB: What's something you wish you knew earlier in your career?

DLG: Just do it, honestly. Take that first step. Worst case, you don't get the outcome you wanted, but you'll have learned and grown. Fear of failure keeps a lot of people stuck. For a long time I didn't believe I was good enough, and I think I also held up this idea of the stereotypical hard charging Silicon Valley founder as the only model, and I'm just not that. Doing it my own way looks different, but it feels right, and I'm hoping that leads to long term success.

MB: I'm so happy for you. It sounds like you're operating in such an aligned way.

DLG: It's been a journey to get here, believe me, a lot of struggle and a lot of wandering the desert. But I'm really grateful to be here today.

Find Delphine on Linkedin! Visit The Protocole Website and Instagram!

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