Fighting for Your Life Twice

What we talked about.

In this follow up conversation, Sunny Ray sits down again with Dave Anderson, founder of Evenflow, a SaaS and AI product built for auto dealerships and car mechanics. This time the discussion moves away from the business itself and into a deeply personal story Dave shared in their earlier call. In December 2022, right after closing key customers and securing seed funding, Dave began feeling unwell but pushed through the holidays before finally going to the ER. He was diagnosed with cancer, initially given less than six months to live, then faced a life threatening complication that narrowed his odds to under 48 hours. He survived, went through surgery and six months of chemotherapy, and eventually cleared the three year survival mark. Throughout it all, he continued running Evenflow largely alone, even taking support tickets during chemo infusions. Dave reflects on mortality, purpose, gratitude, and what founders sacrifice for their companies, calling the experience the most transformative thing that ever happened to him.

Evenflow founder Dave Anderson recounts surviving two brushes with death from cancer while single handedly running his startup.

The questions, and the answers.

Can you walk me through what happened starting in December 2022?

I was coming off a high, we had just signed two big customers and closed our first seed round. Then I started feeling really bad but didn't want to disrupt the holidays with family, so I pushed through it in a lot of pain. Right after New Year's I told my wife I was going to the ER, and she said it was about time.

Sitting alone with a six month prognosis, did the business ever cross your mind?

A little bit, but mostly I thought about what I wished I had done or wanted to do moving forward, and that list looks very different once you're facing limited time. In that first weekend I mainly coordinated handing things off and scrambled to clean up the books so people would get paid if I was gone.

How did you tell your team and investors what was happening?

We were small so I didn't have to tell many people internally. I was thinking day by day, making sure the team had what they needed to keep things going. With investors I didn't know what to say at first, but after I cleared the 48 hour window I told the entire investor team, because I felt I owed everyone transparency about the situation and what lay ahead.

Who was running Evenflow while you were in and out of surgery for six months?

That was me. I ran it throughout the whole experience. I have a lot of memories of sitting in the chair getting chemo infusions and handling customer support tickets at the same time, because I was essentially still doing support myself.

Do you think founders ignore their bodies more than most people?

I lived in an unhealthy way because time always felt like the biggest asset I could use. I'd forgo sleep, skip exercise, and grab quick food instead of eating properly, always trading health for one more hour of work. Looking back it was shortsighted, trading my future for a near term to-do list.

What changed about how you led or prioritized after coming out the other side?

I gained more patience and understanding of others, and I try, though I still fail sometimes, to focus on gratitude rather than dwelling on what's wrong. I also learned a fundamental lesson about focusing energy only on what you can control, since fighting things you can't control is like pushing water upstream.

You called the diagnosis the best thing that ever happened to you. What are you grateful for now that you never noticed before?

I always said my wife and kids mattered most, but I didn't always act that way. Now my relationships with them feel more connected. I'm also grateful that Evenflow needed me during chemo, which gave me purpose, and that as a founder I had the flexibility to set my own schedule rather than being tied to someone else's shift.