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JM

Jessica Mah

03/13/14

@ Y Combinator

Initially, we thought we were on the path to success, but I later realized that we were not converting users into paying customers because we were too focused on fundraising and PR instead of creating a product that people actually needed.

Video

Jessica Mah at Female Founders Conference 2014

@ Y Combinator

Jessica Mah at Female Founders Conference 2014

03/13/14

Related Takeaways

Y Combinator Cast

02/13/25

@ Y Combinator

In hindsight, we didn't track revenue effectively; we focused on usage metrics, which made it unclear how many monthly active users we needed for fundraising.

Hosain Rahman

10/15/14

@ Y Combinator

After launching our first consumer product, we realized we had compromised on key design elements, which ultimately led to its poor performance in the market.

Ooshma Garg

04/19/16

@ Y Combinator

After launching our first product, we received positive feedback from investors, but I was unaware that we were about to face a long period of struggle.

Olivier Pomel

06/14/24

@ The Logan Bartlett Show

In the early days, we struggled to raise money, which taught us to focus on solving real problems and to build an efficient, profitable business from day one.

Jason Citron

11/25/24

@ 20VC with Harry Stebbings

We quickly realized that building it and expecting users to come didn't work; we had to actively engage potential users to grow our platform.

Mathilde Collin

10/25/18

@ Y Combinator

We started with a freemium model, but realized it distracted us; we shifted to a paid model and consistently increased prices over time, which helped us focus on serious customers.

Dan Siroker

10/26/13

@ Y Combinator

After graduating, I focused entirely on my startup but struggled to achieve profitability, which taught me the importance of having paying customers.

Kathryn Minshew

06/20/14

@ Y Combinator

Despite early growth, we faced challenges in fundraising, pitching to 150 investors, with most rejecting us due to the perceived unsexiness of our content-focused approach.

Aadit Palicha

04/18/25

@ Y Combinator

The brutally honest feedback we received from Y Combinator helped us understand that we weren't at a point where we could credibly claim product market fit.