On going for it
origin stories, starting a new thing, and going for it
How it started. How it’s going.
When you start a company, you spend a lot of time talking about yourself. You think you’ll spend all your time pitching the idea or the product but instead most people’s questions keep coming back to you.
What’s your story? What did you build before this? Who do I know and trust that will vouch for you? Why are these the right 2 “bros” to build this?" Do I trust that you’re not going to blow my LPs money on stupid shit like trading the Bitcoin ETF?
Eventually, you think you get it. Early on people are betting on you far more than they are on your idea, product, or business. At this stage, the business is you.
At some point, you convince yourself that actually, it’s about how big the market is. The why now. How much smarter you are than your competitors. How pixel perfect your deck is.
Later, you realize those questions about your business are 80-90%+ to figure out if they sufficiently believe and trust in you. (e.g. Do they trust in your ability to think about things critically? To make prudent, prompt decisions based on what the market tells you? To execute on said decisions? Etc.)
Co-founders, customers, advisors, recruits, investors. They all want to know who you are and why you’re doing this. Why are you special? Why is this business the culmination of your life experiences? (e.g. why were you born to create shareholder value ;)
The company's origin story and the founder’s origin story become two sides of the same coin. Early-on, there’s more depth to your origins as the founder than to your company.
Eventually, you learn that leaning into your story is an advantage. You build a myth around yourself and why you’re building this business.
The funny thing is that building this company and doing this thing with your life feels so surreal it might as well be a myth.
Origins
Close friends know that childhood was hard. Difficult. Challenging. Pick your adjective.
Growing up was different. Different from what most of your peers experienced. That’s always made it hard to connect over the typical coming of age stuff.
You grew up in Ohio. Poor by American standards.
And religious. Very f*cking religious. Like some people would call your sect of Christianity a cult religious.
Dad was the pastor. Not the mega-church with a book and a private-plane type of pastor but the works 2 jobs on the side to make money net out every month type of pastor.
You grew up believing that God created everything and that Evolution is a lie. That the bible is the infallible word of God. That you should base your entire life on its teachings. That you should follow God’s calling for your life. Stuff like that.
You believed it for a while. But eventually the questions, hypocrisy, and overall wrongness became too much. They always told you to ask God for what you want. Eventually, you decide that God helps those that help themselves.
They homeschooled you because public school was a bad influence. You don’t experience a real classroom until college.
College itself is a distant concept. Everyone you know that goes to college goes to Christian college or not at all. Someday, you and your sister will become the first-generation of your family to achieve that goal.
Your sister leaves. You parents move again. Dad takes on a new church. You leave Cincinnati and go to a small town in the country.
You go through some really hard times. Money is really tough. Dad is struggling to make it. The financial crisis happens and wipes out the mortgage. Your family loses what little bit of financial stability they had. Things suck.
Bad stuff happens to you in this new town. You get bullied a lot. You don’t have friends. An adult that a kid should be able to trust does bad things to you. You experience isolation. You learn what it truly feels like to be alone.
Someday a psychologist will give you labels for the things that happened. That it’s not normal to be cutting yourself at 11. That suicide attempts at 14 aren’t par for the course.
You almost delete that line, but you’ve made your peace with it at this point.
Inflection points
The suicide attempt at 14 is a low point. It can’t go on like this anymore.
You give yourself a choice:
1. You find a way to make a change.
Or
2. You don’t miss next time.
So you make a go at change. Fitness becomes the focus. First running. Later the dumb bells you bought with the money Grandma gave you for Christmas.
You lose 50+ pounds in 6 months. Losing the weight changes the trajectory of your life. The beginning of unf*cking not just your body but more importantly your mind.
Your sister’s new boyfriend is the first person that ever believes in you. He teaches you how to bench press. More importantly, he gives you hope.
An obsession with getting better consumes you. You read a lot of books from the local library. Sam Walton’s memoir introduces you to entrepreneurship. You decide you’re going to start a company someday. No idea how but at least you have a mission.
At 15, you start working full-time. College costs money and no one is coming to save you.
You get 3 jobs. You work 80-100 hours a week. You start your first business. You save over $40k.
They try to get you to become a grocery store manager instead of going to college. You think about it. You think about joining the military too. The options feel pretty limited. You stick with the plan. Grocery stores aren’t going anywhere if college doesn’t work out.
You pick the school that gave you a scholarship, isn’t in Ohio, and lets you take the ACT after admission (you were ignorant about how to apply for college back then). You pack your bags and move to Florida.
During school you intern for a family business. You finally witness entrepreneurship first-hand. It’s addicting
The founders sell the business and start a new company. They ask you to be a co-founder. You’re 20 and naive enough to go for it.
Doing startups
You build, sell, hustle, fail, and keep going. The business kinda works. Then it doesn’t. You realize it’s a bad business.
The company pivots. The pivot only kinda works.
Your co-founders are gonna try to sell the company. You’re broke and the business can’t pay you. One day your co-founder tells you that you should move on. You learn what it’s like for one version of a dream to die.
After a few days of wallowing in self pity, you assess your options as as 22-year-old failed founder from a shitty school with no “real” job experience. Circumstances don’t look good but the fire is still there.
So you hustle for it again. You send a lot of cold emails from that Starbucks with the infinite iced coffee refills. This startup CFO named John answers your email and starts mentoring you. He connects you to one of his investors. That firm takes a chance on you. You pack your bags and move to Columbus. You’re still in the game.
You work really hard. Learn a lot. Prove yourself. Do your first deal. You realize some of the people you work with don’t share your values. You realize that who you work with and what mission you work on matters far more than titles and roles.
COVID happens. The world goes remote. You get on Twitter for the first time. You start following founders you admire. One of them announces the seed round for this startup called On Deck. You shoot your shot in the DMs. They interview you. Then they reject you. You try again. This time it works.
You work harder than ever before. The company is succeeding faster than anything you’ve ever been a part of. $1-20M in revenue in 12 months. Huge Series A. Then Series B. Everyone thinks you’re crushing it. You think you’re crushing it. Everyone in tech seems to be crushing it. Building successful companies starts to look easy.
You get promoted a bunch. Your options are a lot more valuable now. They label you as high potential. You’re finally in the rooms you always dreamed of being. You make a lot of friends and move to New York.
You leverage your spot and make the most of it. You build a great network. You realize that networks are just relationships and that helping people without expectations isn’t just smart but it’s the only thing that feels morally right.
You start getting recruited by other startups. This is the first-time in your life that people are offering you opportunities instead of you fighting for them.
One of those startups is called Party Round. The founder has more confidence and charisma than anyone you’ve ever met. You want to be around that. To figure out how he does it. You fly out and meet the rest of the team. They’re killers.
He offers you a dream role. You go for it.
You build a product and make numbers go up. The company pivots. You try a lot of growth hacks. You meme a conference into existence to launch the new product and a rebrand. You’re reminded of how moldable the world really is.
You experience your first down market. The startup isn’t going to work out the way you had hoped.
You leave with no idea what you’ll do next. You decide to take a mini-sabbatical. Within 2 days, you tell your girlfriend that you’re ready to start a company. She’s nervous about that, but supports you anyway.
Some family can’t believe you’re turning down 6-figure jobs to start a company. “You’d made it” according to them but not according to you.
Figuring it out
You talk to all the smartest people you know. Spend a lot of time reading and reflecting.
You try a lot of stuff with one of your friends. Most of them don’t work. One of them kind of works but ends up not being what you want.
Eventually, you stumble into something that feels perfect for you, but you’re actively working on something else that’s starting to work.
You try to convince yourself not to do it. But the idea won’t leave your brain. It takes Hunter repeated attempts to get you to consider it.
Finally, a friend and mentor gives you some great advice to commit for 60 days. You do. Within 30, you’re all-in.
You spend months talking to customers. Build a prototype. Try to recruit co-founders. Most aren’t the right fit. You trial it with one friend that almost works out. But it’s not quite right and you know it. You have to make one of the toughest calls of your life. You make the call.
Going for it
You keep going alone. Your savings are burning lower. But your conviction in what you’re building is getting stronger.
Steven calls you and tells you he’s quitting his job and thinking about what’s next. You’ve wanted to work with him again for a long time. You call him back and shoot your shot. Soon docs are signed and it’s official.
You sign customers. The product becomes real. It’s starting to become a real business.
You decide it’s time to cash in all your chips and fundraise. You work on the story. The first few pitches are terrible.
You pound the pavement. 10-15 meetings a day for 6 weeks.
You’re not sure you’re going to get it done. Then going into Thanksgiving the round oversubscribes. All of a sudden everyone wants to give you money. You pick the people you want to work with. The people that built their own conviction and believed for the right reasons.
Your anxiety shifts from can we get the money to do this right to f*ck we’ve got to do this right.
The real work is just beginning.
Jake asks you what you’re proudest of. You look around and say that it’s being here. You still can’t believe that any of it’s real and that you made it this far. It barely seemed possible 10 years ago.
You’re going for it now. You realize that you’ve been going for it for a long time.
I guess writing about origins is my way of soft launching the new company we’ve been working on.
2023 was one of the most uncertain and difficult years of my career. I learned a lot this year. About myself. About the world. About what I stand for. About sacrifice. About conviction. About commitment.
I still have a lot to learn.
I’m deeply grateful for the opportunities that I’ve been given and the people that are in my life. Thank you to the many, many, many of you that have helped me along this journey. I wouldn’t be here without you.
Fwiw, if you’re dreaming of pursuing something this year, I think you should go for it.
More to come on what Steven and I are building soon. Happy 2024.
Read every word. Thanks for writing it, educational and inspiring for other people and your future self I hope 💪
You are one of the realest in the game Andrew. Thanks for giving us a brief glimpse into your journey and life.