alt Hacker NewsMojo was also less ambitious in a lot of ways. It blows my mind the Eve and Darklang guys raised so much money without a lot of momentum. I'd think you'd go the other way, start an Open Source project, spend 10+ years gaining a community and refining it, then raise money.
In both of the above cases, the founders just got bored of their project before they found PMF.
Replies
krainboltgreene • 06/16/2025
Paul had created Circle CI, so I can see how investors would at least be trusting. Rightly so, I think, as he's not just talented but he knows talent.
You just have to look at the landscape at the time. There was a lot of money to be had if you promised the sun and moon, because $2 million wasn't a lot compared to the potential upside. The problem was, and this is what Paul found out too, they wanted to see typical startup metrics before they'd put more money in, and it was always going to take more than $2-3 mil. You just can't demonstrate those with a concept of a language.