I'm 31. I've started 4 companies, 2 with VC. All of them have failed with middling levels of success. Internally, I am unfazed and my top priority in life is to build cool shit until I die. Externally, I think I look like a confused loser burning my bridges.

For context:

- No formal education, no big logos, but worked my way up in design/eng at VC-backed SaaS for most of my 20s, then:

- 1st company was a simple consultancy. Did modestly well for myself. I shut it down to start the next startup.

- 2nd company was a consumer SaaS app. Had a fantastic launch, made enough to pay me, but I raised a pre-seed, got a cofounder, hired a team, and we fizzled out doing performative hyperscale bullshit (should've just kept doing what worked).

- 3rd company was a design agency. Actually did really well, consistently $3m+/year with <10 people until covid turned us upside down, we never recovered. Shut down last year.

- 4th company was a b2b SaaS app. Raised pre-seed and started to raise seed. Did well in our niche but when momentum slowed, domain expert co-founder threw in the towel and the rest of us couldn't maintain it. Shut down 6 months ago.

My team is loyal to the game, they won't quit until I do. We're now hacking on edge-level RL & robotics and we're close to having a rad demo. But after being modestly rich for years, I'm now 6 months from total broke. A lot of people tell me to take a high paying full-time job to stabilize my career, but I can't give a fuck about comfort when it feels like we're on the edge of something great. Nonetheless, I have to figure out my runway asap. Trailer park is looking like the top option.

We need a lab and at least a million to survive working on this. I'm close with all my VCs, but I'm still their serial loser, and now I'm playing in capital-intensive hardware instead of the internet hypeware I have experience in. Also this isn't like an obvious $100m ARR in 24 months thing. I'm just a weird founder doing weird things. But my only interest is grinding out a robotics platform that I think paves the road for the next million (robotics) devs.

- Has anyone else failed VC backed startups 3+ times?

- After 2 VC failures should I just get a job?

- How fucked am I in general?

user:	failedagain
created:	September 23, 2025
karma:	2