At the end of October, my cofounder and I decided to step back from day-to-day roles at Shuffle. In theory, not much changes. In practice, clarified expectations empower the team to own the business while freeing us to pursue our personal opportunity-cost hypotheses.
How we got here could fill another post or three. Highlights include calls with the former CEOs of Tinder and Meetup, as well as peak gross sales of $85k in July—about $1M annualized. That sounds good on Linkedin but we're closer to $500k now, and painfully aware of the challenges in scaling this business.
Three recent low points:
How we got here could fill another post or three. Highlights include calls with the former CEOs of Tinder and Meetup, as well as peak gross sales of $85k in July—about $1M annualized. That sounds good on Linkedin but we're closer to $500k now, and painfully aware of the challenges in scaling this business.
Three recent low points:
- We had to fire 5 members of our 11-person team. It hurt. One hire was 24 hours in before we pulled the plug on them and their manager. Tears were shed.
- YC was right, again. In May 2022, Diana asked me about partnerships for Senseg, and I fumbled. In Novemer 2023, Brad told us he was skeptical about the dating market.
- I broke up with my girlfriend. It was my my first serious relationship, and we were living together, so separating has been tough.
My cofounder pointed out that we lean in opposite directions by default. He's more skeptical and takes time to build trust and conviction. I am more optimistic, idealistic, and risk-on firing from the hip. We can learn a lot from each other.
In particular, the YC critique sticks. Twice now, it's taken me a year to absorb lessons they delivered in 10 minutes. I don't want to take this long to internalize hard truths ever again.