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> What are your guys thought? Former fintech co-founder: I boot-strapped (VC and incubators expressed interest but wouldn't give term sheets because of Bitcoin

> What are your guys thought? Former fintech co-founder: I boot-strapped (VC and incubators expressed interest but wouldn't give term sheets because of Bitcoin's 'gray zone' reputation) and with this current tech-apocalypse afflicting the entire Industry I fear you will have a very hard-time raising anything without showing revenue right now. The fat is being trimmed even on the most established of companies, and I fear you will have to enter the work-force if you are in such dire need of money. > My cofounder is telling me if I don't keep working on this startup (using the money out of my cofounder & me's pocket after the company die), then I am being guilty to him, guilty to current investors and guilty to employees, because I am not all in. I self-imposed this on myself, and to be honest had I not done it would have never gone anywhere, whihc had a cascade of effects downstream to the entire cannabis Industry; but ultimately I personally feel I paid too high a cost to do it in the end--it was my most daunting Pyrrhic victory which seemed never ending until I decided to step down and go Corpo for a bit. As someone who went through this and had a decent exit I think that if you thought it's worth doing, you probably wouldn't need external validation, but if I were you I'd really consider what your physical and mental health is worth to you because you will be sacrificing both for the foreseeable future. I'd say start with what other skills can you leverage in this market and start from there, and have a brutally honest assessment with your team as to what it will take to keep the lights on. > But the business we are in require millions of dollars to launch (after the code is ready). Without that much of money, the product provides 0 value. Why? Are you having to comply with lots of legal issues/regulations in various markets? In my time friends were getting sent to prison for non-compliance of nebulous KYC-AML laws and were deemed money transmitters when it was classified as property and not money depending what agency you asked in the US; my question is why would you enter a market that requires that much in run-way and think that this is a viable option let alone that could succeed given the current incumbents? Fintech's appeal is in how well it scales with limited resources, which ultimately is the only thing that allows it to compete with legacy payment processors like Visa/MC who dominate the Market for a reason.

whentojoin 4y ago
Why would you enter a market that requires that much in run-way and think that this is a viable option let alone that could succeed given the current incumbents? >> To answer your question, we enter this industry as completely new-comer. If we know what we know now, we agreed we should have never started this business in the first place. Also we have 0 founder-market fit, and that should be a big reason why no VC funds us.
- Melting_Harps 4y ago
  > To answer your question, we enter this industry as completely new-comer. So were we, in fact it had never been attempted before because of the aforementioned legal implications, despite the obvious use-case in the MJ Industry--we had to turn them down despite the immense demand from the MJ side because of the legal landscape. I think it's time to have a very serious chat with your team and break-down why this didn't work out and learn from this; but just the monetary outlay needed to make this work is entirely untenable to me. Hopefully you can leverage the skills you learned to use in future projects/jobs, because it seems it's time to cut your losses. > I am wondering if I am being a bad person. 99% of startups fail, and no one is a 'bad person' unless they embezzle funds or back-stab/sabotage their co-founders/team (which sadly happens all the time) in my POV. This is just a reversion to the mean when easy-funding, only possible due to ZIRP, has dried up.
- GianFabien 4y ago
  >> "If we know what we know now, we agreed we should have never started this business in the first place." You have answered your own question. should never have started this business.
  - Melting_Harps 4y ago
    > You have answered your own question. should never have started this business. Listen, I'm sure it sounded like I was attacking you, but that isn't what I wanted to do as I know what I feels like and that never helps. I'm sure you have a lot on your plate right now, and I wanted to just say that these things happen in startup-land, it's not the exception it's the norm you aren't a bad person for that. Internalize and learn from this, but don't let it get you too down after that. Just be honest with yourself and your team and go from there. Starting over is like getting over an intense relationship, in the moment it seems insurmountable, but with time it gets easier to want to try again. Best of luck!

whentojoin 4y ago

Why would you enter a market that requires that much in run-way and think that this is a viable option let alone that could succeed given the current incumbents? >> To answer your question, we enter this industry as completely new-comer. If we know what we know now, we agreed we should have never started this business in the first place. Also we have 0 founder-market fit, and that should be a big reason why no VC funds us.

Melting_Harps 4y ago
> To answer your question, we enter this industry as completely new-comer. So were we, in fact it had never been attempted before because of the aforementioned legal implications, despite the obvious use-case in the MJ Industry--we had to turn them down despite the immense demand from the MJ side because of the legal landscape. I think it's time to have a very serious chat with your team and break-down why this didn't work out and learn from this; but just the monetary outlay needed to make this work is entirely untenable to me. Hopefully you can leverage the skills you learned to use in future projects/jobs, because it seems it's time to cut your losses. > I am wondering if I am being a bad person. 99% of startups fail, and no one is a 'bad person' unless they embezzle funds or back-stab/sabotage their co-founders/team (which sadly happens all the time) in my POV. This is just a reversion to the mean when easy-funding, only possible due to ZIRP, has dried up.
GianFabien 4y ago
>> "If we know what we know now, we agreed we should have never started this business in the first place." You have answered your own question. should never have started this business.
- Melting_Harps 4y ago
  > You have answered your own question. should never have started this business. Listen, I'm sure it sounded like I was attacking you, but that isn't what I wanted to do as I know what I feels like and that never helps. I'm sure you have a lot on your plate right now, and I wanted to just say that these things happen in startup-land, it's not the exception it's the norm you aren't a bad person for that. Internalize and learn from this, but don't let it get you too down after that. Just be honest with yourself and your team and go from there. Starting over is like getting over an intense relationship, in the moment it seems insurmountable, but with time it gets easier to want to try again. Best of luck!