The journey from pre-seed to IPO is often glamorized, but the reality is packed with challenges and unexpected twists. Thanks for shedding light on the often unseen struggles and successes in building a startup.
This piece is a mirror and a map: brutally honest, oddly reassuring, and refreshingly helpful. Founders often glamorize the early chaos or the IPO finish line, but this thread delivers the messy middle in full color. It’s not just a timeline; it’s a survival guide. The candid tone and hard-earned wisdom resonate deeply with anyone who’s ever questioned their sanity while chasing product-market fit at 2 am.
The takeaway? It’s not genius that separates success from failure; it’s endurance. Grit. The refusal to quit. Read this if you’re building, doubting, or just deep in the grind. Then keep going.
Pre seed level is a special section in this hell. It really is. The only joys I get are; when I jobin the morning, when I meditate once a day and when I pee. That's excluding prayer. Otherwise... I appreciate knowing this in advance. Brigs perspective to me.
Love this! I’m Harrison, an ex fine dining industry line cook. My stack "The Secret Ingredient" adapts hit restaurant recipes (mostly NYC and L.A.) for easy home cooking.
One of the most accurate founder timelines I’ve read raw, honest, and painfully familiar. Especially love the framing that product-market fit isn’t a finish line, it’s a flirtation. Every early-stage founder should pin this to their wall.
needed this. a sneak-peek at the hell i'm running into ...
The journey from pre-seed to IPO is often glamorized, but the reality is packed with challenges and unexpected twists. Thanks for shedding light on the often unseen struggles and successes in building a startup.
This piece is a mirror and a map: brutally honest, oddly reassuring, and refreshingly helpful. Founders often glamorize the early chaos or the IPO finish line, but this thread delivers the messy middle in full color. It’s not just a timeline; it’s a survival guide. The candid tone and hard-earned wisdom resonate deeply with anyone who’s ever questioned their sanity while chasing product-market fit at 2 am.
The takeaway? It’s not genius that separates success from failure; it’s endurance. Grit. The refusal to quit. Read this if you’re building, doubting, or just deep in the grind. Then keep going.
That sounds truly exhausting. I love to read a piece that correlates the usual challenges faced at various periods of a startup's evolution.
This hit the sweet spot—realistic, a bit confronting, and oddly comforting.
Great insights, and wow…this is going to a ride 🫣
Pre seed level is a special section in this hell. It really is. The only joys I get are; when I jobin the morning, when I meditate once a day and when I pee. That's excluding prayer. Otherwise... I appreciate knowing this in advance. Brigs perspective to me.
Just looking for that $200M offer tbh…
🤔Very interesting and encouraging
Good post! I think it does question what success really means … is it your first raise? PMF? 1 M users? Profitability? Exit? IPO?
It’s probably all matter of perspective; each of these milestones don’t last.
I came to realize success is a process. A mindset. And it’s never finite.
Love this! I’m Harrison, an ex fine dining industry line cook. My stack "The Secret Ingredient" adapts hit restaurant recipes (mostly NYC and L.A.) for easy home cooking.
check us out:
https://thesecretingredient.substack.com
Smashingly good.
Excited 🤣💕🤌🏻
This is an exact timeline of all the feelings and hurdles of the past 10 years as a founder. Sprinting a marathon.
One of the most accurate founder timelines I’ve read raw, honest, and painfully familiar. Especially love the framing that product-market fit isn’t a finish line, it’s a flirtation. Every early-stage founder should pin this to their wall.
This was a very good LLM generated output. Well done.