I pitched 75 investors for funding, but we faced rejection after rejection, which made me cynical about fundraising, especially during a time when no one was investing in consumer-driven businesses.

At HireArt, I faced a moment of potential failure when we hadn't raised any funding while others had, but my co-founders encouraged me to keep pitching until we found an investor who believed in our mission.

With dwindling funds and a working product, I was advised to join Y Combinator, which I initially hesitated to do but ultimately saw as a necessary step to keep the company alive.

After facing significant setbacks, we took back control from our investors and focused on learning from our mistakes to develop a better product.

I had to make tough decisions during a crisis, including shrinking the team and raising funds, which ultimately extended our runway and allowed us to launch successfully despite market challenges.

I felt a lot of pressure during one of the most challenging periods of my life when our second attempt, Flock, also didn't work and we were running out of money.

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

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.

Understanding that we were reinventing the funding industry allowed us to prioritize customer happiness as a key driver of our business.