Not having a lot of money forced us to innovate and focus on making every dollar count, which ultimately helped us grow faster than competitors who had more funding.

In the early days, we struggled to raise money, which taught us to focus on solving real problems and to build an efficient, profitable business from day one.

I had no choice but to bootstrap my company for the first year. I focused on optimizing for a fast and efficient fundraising process because I was warned that a long fundraising process could kill a company.

During the crypto winter, we witnessed Bitcoin drop below $6,000, leading to a loss of VC and institutional interest. We had to learn to be extremely efficient and scrappy with our limited incubation capital.

Despite the challenges, we learned to allocate capital better and operate more efficiently, which allowed us to grow significantly even in tough times.

We had a $500 a month budget for food, which forced us to cook all our meals and be resourceful as we built the company.

We bootstrapped for a year in San Francisco, which was tough, and when I raised our first round, it mainly went to cover expenses I was already paying personally.

We did not expect the first batch of startups to make money; it was an experiment for us to learn how to be investors, which shaped our approach to supporting founders.

We had to build financial controls and go through audits to secure capital, which was critical for our survival against competitors with substantial cash reserves.