Looking back, I wish we had carried on full-bore, but I can also remember after we quit fundraising that I felt like such utter shit that I didn’t feel much like doing anything at all, much less writing code. There was literally a week when I would just stay in bed all day so I didn’t have to face the world. This was the lowest point in my entire life.
The lesson here is, if you are having trouble putting together a round in the first few weeks of actual investor meetings, just say, “screw it,” and get back to working ASAP.
On top of all that, in the middle of all that fundraising junk we received an “interesting” acquisition offer from another company. That is another long story for another time, but the end result was that they caught us at our most vulnerable which caused a lot of mental anguish. We basically went back and forth on accepting and rejecting it dozens of times. After seeking advice from Paul Graham about the situation and telling him how much money we had left in the bank he said, “There are starving startups in Africa that don’t have that much money. You still have time to make a go of it!” Ultimately, it was not the right offer and we said no.
This whole episode basically set us on a sideways path of non-productivity for the next several months as we flailed around looking for a way to pivot or just reset entirely.
I wish this was in print when I undertook a few of my projects. Read this start to finish if you’re an entrepreneur and seriously re-think what your’e about to get yourself into. My life has been permanently altered because of my choices to start a company.
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