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.

I realized I wasn't ready to raise funds because I didn't have the right story; investors couldn't understand the ecosystem I was trying to build with Blavity.

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.

We faced challenges in raising funds due to the 'Stranger Danger' bias, which made investors hesitant about a business model involving strangers sharing homes.

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.

We raised our Series A after initially facing many rejections, but ultimately secured $3-4 million from various investors.

Despite initial struggles, we showed some growth, prompting an investor to suggest we raise a Series A round, which I eagerly prepared for.

I faced rejection from investors at least 50 times while fundraising, and it was tough to determine if my challenges were due to being a brown woman without a higher degree or simply lacking progress.

I made mistakes in the fundraising process, including not meeting enough investors and assuming a deal was done before it actually was.