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.

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.

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.

We took out a credit card and set up meetings with potential investors, knowing that if we didn't raise money, we would have to shut down the company.

We stood out to investors because we weren't like everyone else; we had a straightforward business model and were addressing a real pain point in a fragmented market dominated by big incumbents.

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.

During the disillusionment phase, we struggled to attract investment due to recent failures of other hardware companies, which made investors hesitant.

We initially started a company based on a bad idea, trying to create a wiki for stock research, but it never took off, which is common in consumer businesses where success can feel random.

In the early days, we had 10 to 15 meetings every day with potential customers, but I still didn't fully understand what we were going to build, which was confusing for me as a product manager.