The Pivot Effect: The Brutiful Pivot: Diane Weaver on Founding, Letting Go, and What Comes Next

What happens after the company you built doesn’t need you anymore?

In this episode of The Pivot Effect, Teri Zipper and Susan Richards sit down with Diane Weaver, COO at Baryons and a tech founder. Diane is a fifth-generation entrepreneur and educator who grew up working on her family’s farm and being chased by paparazzi. Her grandfather was a television pioneer who taught her that technology should make life better for people.

Diane talks about going from intrapreneur to founder, what she learned once she was finally “in charge,” and why she keeps a personal advisory board whose members don’t know they’re on it. She opens up about the “brutiful” experience of stepping away after her startup, Course Tune, was acquired, including the three days she spent crying in Paris. She also explains how ChatGPT’s release two months later led her to Baryons, where AI helps people find their own personal compass and work through big changes at work.

The conversation wraps with resilience, self-compassion, and Diane’s view that the finish line comes when something you’ve built is changing someone else’s life.