The (Not) Overnight Success

Entrepreneurship is consistently glorified in traditional and social media. I mean, who wants to write about failures, right? Unless the failure is of epic proportion (see AAF or Theranos), media rarely share news of the humble startup on life support, or the scrappy Founder eating ramen to keep the lights on. It's not sexy. Nor does the Founder want to share their struggles. Our social media feeds are full of gloating successes only.

This vicious cycle of sharing successes and keeping struggles on the DL, has resulted in a shortcoming of what entrepreneurship truly entails, and the grind and hustle it takes to persist. I call this the (not) overnight success phenomenon. Snapshots we're fed by the media and our peers that suggest a seamless path to success.

How many times have you seen this image? Jeff Bezos at Amazon HQ. Often, this is accompanied by a somehow-younger looking Bezos, his net worth and other nuggets of inspiration. Rarely is it complimented with the detail of Amazon's humble beginnings as an online bookstore in 1994, and the hustle, grit and innovation it took to get to where they are now.

Examples like this has led to an epidemic of entrepreneurs believing they're on the wrong path when experiencing setbacks. So, they give up too soon. I liken it to the body-image crisis from photo-shopped models on magazines. The (not) overnight success completely removes the process. I.e. How the success was manufactured. It misleadingly falsifies the startup journey to not be long and challenging, like most in fact are.

I'm raising capital for my startup, GameOn, and I won't lie, it's the hardest thing I've ever pursued, professionally or personally. There's no sugar coating the grind. In the past few months focusing on investment (not including the year of product and biz dev work before that), I've spent countless hours researching and qualifying angels and VC's, followed by more countless hours finding connectors, asking for intros and cold outreaching. Then spending all day, every day, pitching my business like my life depends on it (which, at times more than others, it feels like it does). I'm talking 16-hour days, 100+ meetings and what feels like a never-ending flow of "no's" and investor silence. Constant following up, new outreach and ongoing pitching to keep the pipeline full and the GameOn dream alive. All the while running the everyday business and not taking a salary. A physical and emotional rollercoaster in all senses of the word. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving every minute of it, although it's one hell of a grind. Despite what the (not) overnight success phenomenon would suggest, we're on the right track. After months of pounding the pavement with investors, we're gaining real momentum, have several follow-on commitments and closing in on lead options.

If there's one thing I'm committed to as a Founder, it's to be refreshingly transparent on my experiences, sharing successes, struggles and everything in between. My challenge to others is that you do the same, so we can inspire one another not just with mirage-like snapshots of success, but also the struggles we persevere and overcome to get there.