The decision to shut down was influenced by the realization that our initial hypothesis about the business model wasn't panning out as expected.

My mentor Steve Blank advised me not to be afraid to pivot when things weren't working out, which led me to reconsider our approach to the business.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we had to pivot quickly. Instead of laying off our team as advised, we chose to be transparent and asked everyone to take pay cuts to weather the storm together, which ultimately helped us find our product-market fit.

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.

During the second crypto winter, we had to make hard choices, including letting go of team members, to ensure operational efficiency.

We realized we weren't solving our users' problems anymore, which led us to halt all operations for nine months to reimagine our product and company.

When faced with the decision to lay off employees, my co-founder George and I chose to uphold our core values instead and kept the entire team together, asking everyone to take deep cuts to weather the storm.

Ultimately, we decided to wind down Sidewire after realizing that the business model we envisioned wouldn't achieve the venture-scale returns our investors expected.

The final decision to shut down came after realizing that the business model was not sustainable and that it was time to start fresh. I was tremendously lucky to have supportive investors who believed in the mission of Poppy, which made it easier to communicate the difficult decision to shut down.