423 The Sober Founder: How Recovery Principles Built a Business — and a Movement
423 The Sober Founder: How Recovery Principles Built a Business — and a Movement

The One Day At A Time Recovery Podcast

Andrew Lassise shares how a court-ordered trip to rehab led to long-term sobriety, a successful tech company and eventually the Sober Founder community. The conversation looks at how recovery principles support entrepreneurs through failure, financial stress and the emotional ups and downs of building something meaningful while staying sober.

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57:19•26 Mar 2026

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From DUI to Sober CEO: How Recovery Principles Built a Business and a Community

Episode Overview

Actions in recovery can work even if someone doesn’t initially believe in them, as long as they are taken consistently and honestly.
Early, obvious signs like blackouts and breathalyser workarounds may be minimised, but they clearly indicate a serious alcohol problem.
Recovery tools such as the serenity prayer, sponsorship and spiritual principles can be directly applied to running a business.
Setbacks in business can later be seen as redirections that lead to better outcomes, even if they feel devastating at the time.
Sober entrepreneurs benefit from dedicated community spaces that address both business challenges and the need to protect their recovery.

“"I didn’t plan on getting sober. I didn’t want to get sober. I just didn’t want to go to jail."”

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? For tech entrepreneur and community builder Andrew Lassise, it started with a judge’s ultimatum: jail or rehab. He chose rehab, fully expecting the process to fail – and then watched his life change anyway. This episode of The One Day At A Time Recovery Podcast shares Andrew’s journey from blackout drinking and a .24 BAC DUI to founding, growing and eventually selling a successful IT company.

You’ll hear how he went from “day one blackout drinker” to someone who applies 12-step principles to business, and why he now pours his energy into The Sober Founder community for entrepreneurs in recovery. Andrew talks about the early warning signs he ignored, like failing his own car breathalyser three times and even buying a pocket breathalyser just to pass it.

He explains how working the steps “to prove they wouldn’t work” accidentally gave him better results than he’d ever had before. The conversation then shifts into the emotional and practical reality of sober entrepreneurship: staff to pay, credit card processors freezing funds, failed campaigns, ego, and the temptation to quit.

You’ll get a candid look at how he handled extreme financial pressure while staying sober, why he sees setbacks as “God’s timing, not mine”, and how he used an Ikigai exercise to realise he was the person who had to build a dedicated space for sober founders.

Host Arlina Allen also shares her own experience as a solo entrepreneur in long-term sobriety, highlighting the loneliness, the need for guardrails, and the relief of finding “these are my people” in Andrew’s meetings. If you’re sober (or sober-curious) and building a business, this conversation offers a rare mix of honesty, humour, and practical experience. Could recovery principles be the secret ingredient your work life is missing?

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