Female Founder Friday: In Conversation with Caitlin Rozario, Co-Founder of *interlude*

This week’s Female Founder Friday is a masterclass in clarity, conviction, and the quiet power of walking away. Caitlin Rozario, co-founder of interlude, is carving a different path through startup culture—one rooted in sustainable productivity, radical rest, and an unshakeable sense of self. From turning down VC money, to pivoting from tech to in-person experiences, Caitlin’s story is a bold reminder that success isn’t always about speed—it’s about alignment.

interlude, now a fast-growing sustainable productivity business delivering workshops and corporate experiences, began life as an app. Built from Caitlin’s own experiences of repeated burnout, visual impairment, and ambition that clashed with bodily limits, it aimed to help high-achievers take micro-breaks that actually made a difference. But what started as a tech product evolved into something deeper—something more human.

I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Caitlin to hear how she made the leap, why she turned down six figures, and why her biggest lesson as a founder is learning not just to work in your business… or on it… but about it.

FC: Could you summarise your journey and how interlude came to life?

CR: It’s been a wild five years. I started in all kinds of jobs—Buckingham Palace, seafood sales (I’m vegetarian!), procurement for luxury hotels—but nothing really stuck. I ended up doing a Master’s, then moved into marketing and loved it. But it wasn’t until lockdown, when I was furloughed, that I finally had the space to build something with my partner.

He’d been learning to code, I had this vision of micro-breaks to help people like me—ambitious but physically limited—and together we built an app. We had over 700 users on beta, across 30 companies, and it felt like a proper startup story. We got VC and angel interest. But something didn’t feel right.

FC: And that’s when you made the pivot?

CR: Yes. We had term sheets on the table—including one for six figures—but the process exposed something really core. I spoke to founders in the fund’s portfolio and got red flags. Then the actual contract came through, and one clause asked for full disclosure of our mental health history. I just… couldn’t.

And I realised: if I took that money, I’d be building someone else’s business, not mine. That’s when we pulled back.

We’d already been running workshops as part of our onboarding, and the feedback was amazing. People started asking for more, different topics, deeper dives. That’s when we knew what the real product was. The connection. The human part.

So we pivoted to live sessions and focused on impact, not just scale. It’s been the best decision we’ve made.

FC: You’ve talked about founder burnout and working against your own needs. How did that show up for you?

CR: Oh, terribly. I completely abandoned everything I knew about the interplay of my own productivity and wellbeing. I’d spent years learning to work with my visual impairment—I know I need nine hours of sleep, breaks, no late nights. But when we became “real” founders, I threw it all out.

I just thought: this is what it takes. Hustle. Sleep when you’re dead. Launch at all costs. I was watching everyone on LinkedIn ship constantly, post wins, go to every event. It was so noisy. And I burned out—badly.

That’s when I started listening to myself again. And I came back to our original mission: helping people work better by resting better. ‘You can’t pour from an empty cup’ is a cliché because it’s true. You can’t build a business that’s meant to help others if you’re wrecking yourself to do it.

FC: One of the most striking things you said during our chat was about working about your business. Can you say more?

CR: Yes! There’s so much chat at the moment about working in your business versus working on your business. But I think this is… something else.

“Maybe this is like working about your business.”

That’s what I’ve been doing lately. Not operations (in it), not strategy (on it), but stepping back to ask: What are we actually here to do? Does this feel right? Are we still aligned with our values?

It’s almost like founder philosophy. We need more space for that. Because without it, you can end up building something you resent—or something that doesn’t reflect who you are anymore.

FC: That’s so refreshing. How has being a female, disabled, and mixed-race founder shaped your experience?

CR: It’s complicated. I’m white-passing, so I don’t face a lot of direct racial discrimination—but I do hear things said around me, assuming I’m one of them, which is always a horrible experience.

As a woman, especially in fundraising, it’s exhausting. Female founders still only get 2.3% of VC funding. Even mixed-gender founding teams are ‘impacted’ by having a woman there, with only around 14% going there. The rest goes to all-male teams. It’s grim.

But the biggest challenge for me has been unlearning internalised pressure. I didn’t trust my intuition for a long time. I kept deferring to “experts,” thinking they knew better. But no one knows my specific situation. I’ve had to rebuild that internal filter—bit by bit. Even just asking myself in the supermarket, what do you actually want? It sounds silly, but it’s helped. A lot.

FC: What role has the FounderCatalyst community played?

CR: Huge. Honestly, it’s the most valuable thing I’ve been part of. The WhatsApp group alone has saved me hours—contracts, intros, just moral support.

Sam’s advice is no-nonsense and really human. You feel seen, not just sold to. It’s one of the few founder spaces where I feel like I can show up whole—uncertain, tired, excited, all of it.

FC: What’s next for interlude?

CR: More collaborations with more companies and communities that want to help their people do meaningful, valuable, remarkable work, without the personal price tags of burnout, chronic stress and overwhelm.

And for me personally, the goal is to keep carving space to not just work in interlude, or on it, but about it. That’s the work that keeps it honest. That’s the work that keeps it ours.

If you’d like more from Caitlin, her forthcoming newsletter In Progress is set to explore all things sustainable productivity—honest, practical and totally non-preachy.

You can also join her free monthly planning session, Get Your Shit Together, for a collective reset with real structure (and no overwhelm).

For corporate or community workshops that bring rest and rhythm into your organisation or team, you can find out more here and get in touch:

Website: https://www.interlude.works/caitlin-rozario-booking-form
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-rozario/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/interludeworks/

Author: Gideon Stott, Digital Marketing Executive at FounderCatalyst