We realized that as a company promoting community living, we needed to foster positive relationships with cities rather than adopt a confrontational stance.

During meetings with potential partners, I focused on connecting as humans first, which helped in building relationships despite the competitive landscape.

We learned to do things that don't scale, like personally meeting our users in New York, which helped us build rapport and gather valuable feedback.

We faced significant regulatory resistance from real estate associations, but we activated support from state legislators who were fans of our service, which helped us overcome opposition.

You need to find early partners willing to trust you and work with you on outsourcing processes for local government.

Our strategy to combat regulatory resistance involved highlighting the product's benefits to legislators, ensuring they understood that our service was the future of real estate.

We engaged with hardware vendors like IBM and HP, trying to convince them to partner with us, despite initial resistance.

We realized that we weren't alone in our struggles; other startups faced similar challenges, and persistence was key to success.

We got through tough times by taking a long-term view on our mission and ensuring it improves users' lives in a meaningful way.