Reboot

Chapter 20 Knowing it's the end

The period of time in which we were funded week to week was gruelling and largely a blur. I will never forget the board meeting in which four of the women in the room, including myself, put forward personal funds to bridge a two-day gap the company was facing. Off the back of that I flew to New York to make one last pitch to keep the life support on just a little longer while I furiously fought and hustled to close deals in the background. Deals that ultimately never came through.

Most days ended with exasperation, frustration and not being able to tear myself away from my computer or phone — working, hustling, working, thinking, to just make this come together. But it didn't.

Throughout what turned out to be the last eight months of the business, the board and I constantly asked ourselves, ‘Is this the end?' From a financial perspective we constantly measured our runway. From a business development perspective I spent every last second having any and all conversations to make sure we'd exploited every opportunity for fundraising or revenue — even the tenuous ones. Arguably I shouldn't have spent time on all those conversations, but I know that I couldn't end it without knowing I'd really tried everything. (That's not necessarily a good trait, but I know it's part of why I can sleep well at night now.)

I spent significant portions of my time working through each stakeholder's viewpoint and researching thoroughly to understand not only what we ...