{"id":2535,"date":"2011-06-09T13:24:58","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T17:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=2535"},"modified":"2011-06-09T13:24:58","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T17:24:58","slug":"startups-are-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/06\/09\/startups-are-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2605 “Startups are Hard”"},"content":{"rendered":"

JazzyChad.net<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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\u00a0anything at all<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u00a0yourself\u00a0into. My life has been permanently altered because of my choices to start a company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JazzyChad.net: Looking back, I wish we had carried on full-bore, but I can also remember after we quit…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-linked","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-ET","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7177,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2017\/11\/08\/linked-donald-trump-campaign-ramps-up-2020-re-election-fundraising\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":0},"title":"Linked: “Donald Trump campaign ramps up 2020 re-election fundraising”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"via PublicIntegrity: $67,867: Amount Rubio\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign earned renting out information about its supporters. $146,425: Amount Fiorina\u2019s presidential campaign transferred to a pro-Fiorina super PAC. $700: Amount the campaign of Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, spent to rent a hay bale. That\u2019s a lot less than the $14,500 her campaign\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6271,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/10\/14\/linked-this-is-whats-missing-from-journalism-right-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":1},"title":"Linked: “This is what’s missing from journalism right now”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"via Mother Jones: Here's the other approach. If, before the end of our next scheduled pledge drive in September, we can find just 2,000 readers who value our reporting enough to each pitch in $15 a month, we'll generate $30,000 in new monthly revenue, or $360,000 over the course of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7807,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/07\/29\/cider-news-vermonts-eden-cidery-launches-founders-club-on-indiegogo\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":2},"title":"\u2605 Cider News: Vermont’s Eden Cidery Launches Founders Club on IndieGogo","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"July 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I love Eden Ciders! After many visits to their tasting room and cidery in Newport, VT, this group is making real Ice Cider while very few American companies are doing this in such a traditional way. 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In mid-December, Justin told me about this program called Climbing for Kids (CFK) which is organized by Bay Area Wilderness Training (BAWT) as a program that raises money for kids in the bay area to explore the wilderness in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Announcements"","block_context":{"text":"Announcements","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/announcements\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/31\/Shasta_from_south.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6273,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/11\/04\/linked-did-millennials-ruin-the-olympics\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":4},"title":"Linked: “Did Millennials Ruin the Olympics?”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"via Gizmodo: Really, it\u2019s NBC\u2019s job to adapt its programming to fit the current zeitgeist. It\u2019s futile to blame \u201cmillennials\u201d for lower ratings because it\u2019s futile to a blame a whole generation of people for any singular thing, or hold them accountable in any sort of meaningful way. Millennials don\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1927,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2013\/12\/10\/some-quality-whiskey-tonight\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":5},"title":"\u2605 Some Quality Whiskey Tonight","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"December 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Sadly, I didn\u2019t take any notes! But will at the next go around Also, didn\u2019t bring my camera so lack of notepad and camera means it\u2019s basically as if I didn\u2019t even drink any of these! Tickers gotta tick. Thank you, come again.\u00a0 Summary from memory though 1. Pikesville was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Whiskey"","block_context":{"text":"Whiskey","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/whiskey\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG 5799","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adam-jackson.net\/beer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_5799.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adam-jackson.net\/beer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_5799.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adam-jackson.net\/beer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_5799.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}