A few months ago – LeadSift was truly down in the dumps. We were out of money, we had no customers, no real revenue and worst of all, a lot of our believers had started doubting us. The introductions they made dwindled, the phone calls and email lengths shortened and an overall sense of abandonment prevailed.
Yet, far from conceding, we made a list of 5 audacious goals we would want to achieve in the next 3 months. We printed them off and hung them up over each of our tables.
We had had a painful couple quarters and decided to pivot re-position and with a tiny team, embarked on building an enterprise software within 3 months. We wanted to close some F500 companies and sign a few strategic partnerships selling the product that was still incomplete.
Fast Forward: Within the next 5 months, we had signed over 15 name brands and 3 strategic partnerships and in very close talks of signing a couple more.
No miracles happened. And we weren’t lucky. No serendipitous encounters or silver bullets. The only thing was, we just worked really really hard. We didn’t bother with press and raising money and being a cool startup and hackathons and culture building exercises and networking events and all that. We just worked with a laser sharp focus, all aligned to the same goal, motivated to escape our death. And it worked! And there’s nothing more redeeming than winning back the trust of people who had put their faith in us in the first place.
Of course we know we’re far away from being successful and this is only one of many challenges to come that will shake even our own faith. We received emails asking to hire us or our employees or offering advice on how to shut down gracefully and I can’t lie, it’s wonderful when I today, I close my eyes and say to myself, Fight it Founders because there’s always a bullet left. But make sure you get that fucker smack in the heart!
