Why did the wheels stop? What’s next?
Previously, I walked you through our decision to apply for YCombinator and the decision not to pursue it in the end. In this post, I will walk you through the circumstances that led to us ceasing to work on our startup.
While we applied for YC, we were already speaking to other investors, despite our plans of starting this process being at least three months away. I learned from several other founders and particularly from?this post by Monzo’s co-founder Tom?about how to raise investments. Our conversations were on track, we were sending regular monthly updates and had regular check-ins with investors we were interested in, and our traction was on the right path as well.
But, among all the challenges we were navigating while building this startup, something very stressful was happening in parallel all this time that no one knew about. My relationship was falling apart, a relationship that we both thought would last beyond a lifetime. There were several reasons why that was happening, but we were struggling to save it, because we both wanted it, but it was getting harder and harder with each day.
And then there came a time when everything became so painful that it brought me to a standstill. I couldn’t climb two mountains at the same time. I had to stop everything and had to give a hard look at my life. I didn’t do anything related to my startup for a week while my co-founders kept the business running. I realized that this startup is very important to me, but this relationship takes the highest priority. I can always build a startup later, but the time to act on this relationship was NOW! I have faced a few tough situations in my life, but nothing had affected me the way this experience affected me.
Professional achievements are temporary, personal losses are permenant.
So, I gathered my founders to explain my situation to them. I expressed what I am going through. I told them that it has become very hard for me to focus on this startup at the moment and I don’t know when this situation will improve. I discussed quitting the startup. They were supportive, they had always been. Very patient, very sane. No doubt I started this company with them.
We then spoke about the transition plan, how they want to run the start-up without me, and what role I can play to make it easier. We had these conversations over a few days. They came to the conclusion that I am the one with the industry knowledge, they primarily bring general skills such as sales, marketing, tech, and product, but they don’t know a lot about the SaaS procurement industry, so they feel out of depth, and it won’t make sense to continue with this startup without such knowledge.
We had a few more conversations after that day to make sure we sleep on our decisions. After a year and a half, we were finally talking about things that were not about our startup, we didn’t even know how it felt anymore. There was a huge blank in our life because it was hard to go from putting 12 hours every day into something to having all that time in your hand and having no purpose at the same time.
We decided to take a break because we barely took one over the past year. After we gained some sanity and processed our decisions, we decided to take the next step, and we all started looking for new opportunities. One of my co-founders started a business-focused content channel and is doing really well now, another one was very good with Product management and found a role in another startup. I took a break as I needed emotional support and wanted to give myself time to recover from my breakup as it was the most life-changing event I have ever witnessed so far. It made me question everything I ever lived for. After months of introspection, break, and family time, I started seeing what I really value in my life, from relationships, from work, and from myself. It was a devastating experience, but it gave me so much. It brought me closer to myself. I wish this had never happened, but I accepted that this happened for a reason.
That being said, now I am looking for my next adventure. I again want to get up in the morning and look forward to what I will do today, I want to be excited about all the challenges I would face, and all the problems I would solve. I again feel like that fueled-up racing car that wants to zoom!
After giving a few days researching the market and my interests, few of the sectors I identified that I find very exciting. I am not limited to them, but I am getting my hands on everything I can learn about these sectors at the moment:
Few things I do really well:
领英推荐
Roles I think I would do well into, but I am open to suggestions:
Please contact me if:
This is where I can be contacted:
I hope going through my journey felt familiar, or you learned something, or it inspired you to also take your next step, however small that is. This post is not written with the intention to be shared with people, but if you think it would help someone you know, please share it with them. You don’t know how it helps them.
Fortune favours the bold
This post is part of five post series that was intended to walk you through our journey of building our startup and shutting it down. Please find all the posts?here.