Last month, I decided to shut down my startup and return ~$100k/$150k to @VillageGlobal and @BeOnDeck's Runway Fund.

Coming to that decision sucked.

Thread on using ISAs as an edu entrepreneur, struggling with mental health, making the above decision, and what I'm doing next

// Background //

I started a company last year to tackle the problem that "it's too hard for entrepreneurs to launch and scale income share agreements."

I thought making global ISAs easy would significantly help democratize access to opportunity.

// Market validation //

I thought that we validated the existence of a venture-scale problem from the beginning.

In retrospect, we misinterpreted data validating the need for *information* on how to use ISAs as data validating the need for a *product* that makes ISAs easy.

// Executing on the "Stripe or ISAs" //

Armed with vanity validation data, the company was accepted into @VillageGlobal's accelerator and received investment from the @BeOnDeck's Runway Fund.

This reinforced the company's vanity validation, and we doubled down on execution.

We addressed different aspects of making ISAs easy that leads said were holding them back from converting into customers.

In hindsight, we realized the majority didn't want to *commit* to launching ISAs.

They wanted to *consider* launching ISAs, and we helped them (for free).

Quick aside -

This is one of the biggest lessons that will stick with me as an entrepreneur: validate the problem by getting people to pay you.

Do not assume validation means getting people to give you their contact information or time.

/aside

We tried shifting up-market to helping existing startups scale ISAs. We found problems to solve, but they weren't venture-scale.

Tangential markets gave us no luck.

Across markets, the same challenge persisted: It's too hard to take on the risk of predicting outcomes.

I realized a lot of this at the end of November, wrote the thread below, and moved onto other ideas.

https://twitter.com/caffeinatedwes/status/1328475626551062530

That's when my mental health started to suffer.

Social isolation and Indiana's cold, dark winter didn't help.

I tried to fight how I felt through being more diligent in my work, work outs, meditation, light therapy, and (covid-appropriate) socializing.

The above helped, but I was still regularly depressed, anxious, and stressed.

I sought help. I hired a therapist and had more candid conversations with my coach, family, and friends.

In the process, I realized I had drifted from why I started the business in the first place.

I could philosophize about personal motivations and "startup dogma", but this this the takeaway:

My goals and the investors goals were no longer aligned, so I decided to dissolve the business and return the capital.

Of course, I'm still relentlessly curious about how I can best help democratize access to opportunity in education.

That's why I'm launching @RarelyDecaf: part agency, part education provider, and part no-code product studio to help education startups scale their impact.

No-code and low-code will be core to @RarelyDecaf.

These movements and tools create a huge amount of leverage for modern education businesses.

Here are a few examples of products and features built with no-code and low-code: https://rarelydecaf.com/builds 

If you're interested in...

Learning more about working together
Learning how to better leverage no-code and low-code for your education business
Following along with @RarelyDecaf's products + learning opportunities

Leave your email here: https://rarelydecaf.com/ 

Bonus content in the form of industry theories and observations and a link to the full post-mortem:

https://www.notion.so/pactero/Align-Global-Inc-post-mortem-772fd52db10144229e43a124e5deba66

If you found any of this useful and want to share your support by buying me a coffee, here's a link to my Venmo.

I'm waiting for a bank account approval to open my actual @buymeacoffee account https://venmo.com/code?user_id=1622054327549952683