The initial version of The Muse didn't look like a billion-dollar company, but getting it out there was essential for our growth.

The Muse's first website, launched in 2011, was not great, but it attracted 20,000 users in the first month, indicating we struck a chord despite its flaws.

When starting The Muse, I felt a lot of anxiety about our product, which I viewed as an ugly duckling, unsure if it would ever develop into a swan.

After joining Y Combinator, we initially aimed too high with complicated ideas for The Muse, but were advised to focus on launching a simpler version first. I learned that you have to pick one idea, strip it down, and launch to start testing demand.

To build The Muse, we focused on creating valuable career content to attract users before we had job listings, which helped us establish a marketplace.

Building The Muse was incredibly challenging, especially in the early days when I was cold emailing 800 student groups to gain our first users and pitching to over 150 VC firms, receiving 148 rejections in six months. Despite the struggle, I learned that while it never truly gets easy, the risk of failure diminishes as the company grows.

We launched our first version of The Muse using a WordPress site, providing career advice targeted at women in their twenties, despite investors claiming it was a small market.

I want to take you through some of the mistakes we made and the lessons learned while building The Muse.

When we launched The Muse, I reached out to my contacts via email to ask for word-of-mouth support, which led to significant initial traction.