Startups pitch investors more than they talk to users.
Then they cry about nobody using their f*cking product.
Everyone wants to be the next headline:
↳ "$1M pre-seed! 14 angels! Next-gen AI for scheduling dentist appointments!"
But what you don't see—what nobody wants to admit:
Founders are rehearsing Demo Day monologues in the mirror.
They're obsessing over the perfect pitch deck colors.
They're rewriting their “market potential” slide for the 14th time this week.
Meanwhile?
They haven't talked to a single real f*cking user in months.
Product-market fit? They wouldn't recognize it if it smacked them in the teeth.
Here's what's really going down:
1/ You're building for investors, not for customers.
2/ You crave VC applause instead of user feedback.
3/ You raise, you hire, you burn—and nobody wants what you're building.
4/ Suddenly, runway runs out and you get blindsided by the SAP of startup reality: no market, no revenue, no survivors.
Let's make one thing clear:
↳ Investor money ≠ proof of demand.
↳ “Warm intros” ≠ advocacy.
↳ Pitching isn't customer discovery.
↳ “But they loved my deck!” isn't traction.
If you can pitch 20 investors but can't convince ONE user to pay, your “company” is a f*cking costume.
Ask yourself:
Are you solving pain, or just selling pipe dreams?
Are you winning customers, or just winning LinkedIn likes from VCs?
Here's what happens when you flip the script:
You talk to users.
You cringe at raw feedback.
You iterate and bleed until you EARN real dollars from real people.
That's building.
That's how we've done it at BuddiesHR: bootstrapped, profitable, no investor leash, all customer obsession.
You want a company that lasts?
Put down the pitch deck.
Pick up the phone.
Talk to your f*cking users.
Survival isn't raised. It's earned—conversation by gritty, painful, necessary conversation.
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