Nobody talks about this part of being a solo female founder
I swear I love listening to other entrepreneur success stories, but there are almost none that portray the reality I am currently living.
I tried finding a co-founder, but each “partnership” ended badly. The first one got burnout, the second was threatening me and was a narcissist, and the third signed up for new stuff without telling me. So now I am still here by myself.
I think I somehow managed to organize a pilot. I have some investors lined up and interested, but no one wants to take the risk of investing in me with no team.
I am really in love with what I am building and for some reason I just can’t be ground down. Maybe I am crazy or maybe I am onto something — we’ll find that out when the time comes — but so far nothing has beaten me down enough to give up, and honestly I can’t believe it.
I’ve had so many days where I came home crying, and the boys’ club, that the startup scene is, hasn’t failed to put extra challenges in my way, but I am still here.
So many times I’ve stood next to some 21-year-old dude with an ego bigger than the Eiffel Tower and an idea far from original, while a room full of old white-haired men from a long-gone time couldn’t sign checks fast enough, but wouldn’t even notice me even if I was one of the five startups pitching. I could’ve screamed and I still would’ve been nothing more than a prop.
I’m about to launch publicly and apply to accelerators on my own. I have nothing more to show than happy beta testers, a working product, and my crazy self — the last woman standing.
I felt like posting this because honestly there are not enough people talking about exactly this moment in founding: a one-woman show keeping the show going when no one is watching.