The Struggle Makes it Worthwhile
Best month of my life happened during my hardest year
Published 1.5 years later
August 2024 was the best month of my life.
I closed the biggest deal of my life: $4.5M in Seed funding for Team-GPT [now Juma].
But what made it special was not the achievement itself.
It was two other things:
The struggle I went through to get there
The fact that I shared the achievement with my loved ones
The struggle
Starting Team-GPT was not all rainbows and butterflies.
We had a lot of internal fighting since Day 1. The initial equity distribution was a total mess. It was unfair and would not yield a prosperous company.
Reaching a lean and fair distribution of the equity took us 6 months, and another 4 months to get it done on paper. This was a major risk for the project itself and caused a lot of anxiety and trouble to everyone involved.
But it had to be done for the good of the company.
Not only this.
On the 3 Jan 24, my dog died. It happened very fast. I was in Austria for New Year’s Eve and drove 1000km in 1 day to see him for the last time, but I missed him. It broke my heart twice as much.
It was the worst start of the year.
My mom said:
When you go fundraising, you’ll forget about the pain.
I went to fundraise for Team-GPT shortly after.
I was looking forward to this challenge.
It was something I had never done in my life.
I knew it was going to help me grow as a person. I needed to go through adversity to come out stronger. I went 100% out of my comfort zone.
Everyone I was talking to was telling me I’m asking for too much money, no one is going to give it to us.
I didn’t care. I knew how much I needed to make my vision come true.
But people doubting me so much was a bit new for me.
It was getting to me. It was shaking me to the core. I was starting to doubt myself and the business.
The rejection was killing me.
So, there I was. All alone in San Francisco- home of all AI and VC funding.
I was almost destroyed. A complete reck.
My sleep score was at an all-time low.
Stress – at an all-time high.
I came home for Easter.
I couldn’t do it any longer.
After 2 months abroad, the fundraise was not done yet. This meant the company would seize to exist and I would have let down everybody involved.
Came home to my family to celebrate.
They were hoping for me to talk about the whole experience. However, all they got was an Iliya who was not speaking for days.
I had been pitching for 15 hours a day, every day. For 2 months.
I didn’t know what to say.
I couldn’t look my father in the eye.
I was trying to smile but it was not coming out well.
They asked me whether I’ll quit trying.
I had made the mistake of joking that ‘I’d rather kill myself than stop in the middle of it’. This really concerned them about my mental health.
And indeed, I had a full pipeline of VC calls. I knew I was very close to raising money.
People wanted to invest!
I was just too picky – I wanted to find the right partner.
The intervention
There was a family intervention. They thought I was suicidal. It was unacceptable for my family to keep looking at my suffering.
I looked at them and said:
You don’t know what I know. I have been in these meetings. I know how carefully VCs listen to me. I know we are onto something. This could be the project of my life. I’ve prepared perfectly well and I’ll deliver!
A family member said:
I have no doubt that you’ve prepared better than everyone else. But we have to face the reality at some point.
I was absolutely crushed.
20 days later I had received 2 term sheets, essentially filling the $4.5M Seed round.
I was ready to take everything above $3.5M, so this was a major win.
I came home and took a 1-week vacation with my family.
It was raining.
Celebrated my birthday with Prosecco in the morning.
Listened to classical music all day: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Haydn, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Stravinsky, Verdi.
We did them all.
My brainwaves were coming back to normal.
Especially because I was back with my family.
Best month of my life
So why was August 2024 the best month of my life?
I was deeply struggling between January and May.
June was the month I came back to life.
July was all about getting the documents ready and hiring new key people to the team.
August was the month where everything fell in place. August is when it all unraveled.
But mainly → the fact that I shared the achievement with my loved ones
I was back with my family.
But I was also back with my team.
I fuc*king love our team.
I’m so energized when I’m around these people.
In Aug 2024 we had our first major offsite.
We called ‘Summer Brain Camp’
We took the time to plan the next few months.
We bonded.
We were together when the lawyers sent us the documents for the financing.
We were together when we signed.
We were together when we were relieved from all the anxiety.
We were together when we shared the dream of becoming a unicorn.
Several days later, all was closed.
We waited for the money in the bank for 7 days.
Every day we were checking together, hoping we will be together in one place when they arrive.
On my last day on the seaside (I was born in Varna, Bulgaria – where my parents live), just as I was about to leave, we decided to check if the money was in the bank one last time.
It was a magical moment.
We had done it.
And we could share the moment together! ❤️
It’s hard to explain how happy I felt at the end of it.
Truly the happiest time of my life.
To savor the triumphs, you absolutely need the struggles.
Make sure you share both with your loved ones – it provides all the meaning.
See also:
The 100% real story about our fundraising. Journalled as it was happening.