chopcast

We had $0 to our name. Actually, a bit less than that.

We had negative funds, when we first started chopcast. We used our own capital. 0 customers. 0 MRR. 0 funding.

Truth be told, Aamen and I didn't even know what the business was going to be, we just knew that we wanted out of the corporate rat race.

We figured let's do an agency first. We ended up scrapping that idea after 2 months, given the competitive landscape.

I vividly remember a specific point of desperation where we were $3000-$5000 in, with $0 revenue to show for it.

I remember thinking, if only we had $2K MRR in the bank, this would solve everything.

We hit that.

But then I thought, "that's nice, but if only we had $4K MRR in the bank, that would solve everything."

The goalpost kept getting moved, and our challenges never went away. They just became more sophisticated as we grew past a couple thousand users.

Even now, we're like "if only we release features X,Y, and Z, we'll be set".

I realized there will always be something 'missing' as it were.

So here's what I've learnt:

I've recently learnt the benefit of Cancelling out the X. There will always be an unfulfilled desire or challenge not yet resolved. It's a constant. Rather than obsessing over it, since I know it'll always be a part of the equation, I've gotten into the habit of just cancelling it out.

It's helped me as a founder focus myself and my team on what matters most, without carry-on (or check in!) baggage for that matter.

Founder mental fitness is a thing. It's not all about going HAM on MRR CAC and LTV. There must be a metric that captures

"Are you mentally sane enough to continue building this company sustainably, or are you about to implode in the next 48 hours?"

It's about employing tools that help you stay in the game and build for longevity. Cancelling out the X helped us realize that, you know what, there will always be something. Mark it a constant, cancel it out, and get back to building a sustainable, profitable, happy business.

I hope this helps one founder or creator today.

How do you stay in the game?

-Kareem/co-founder

2 years ago | [YT] | 1