Matt Munson, the CEO of a startup that’s raised over $10M from several of the world’s top venture firms and has made millions in revenue, posted “The Secret Suffering of Today’s Leaders.”

It resonated with me. He wrote:

“Let’s get honest. None of us are killing it. We’re all going through a series of very human experiences, some of which are wonderful and some of which are quite painful.”

Today, I’m going to share a few of those ups and downs with you.

WIN: We have a Promoter!

Our very first Promoter is a company that manages a news and events site serving Deaf locals in a metro area! They purchased a pre-launch package and then ordered a setup package to migrate their news and event promotion system.

This is a huge deal because marketing advice always says “Show, don’t tell.” With this promoter’s set-up, we’ll be able to show how Eventida can be used.

WIN: We have a partner for the Team account!

We are thrilled to announce that we will be testing our Team account features with the Miami chapter of Deaf Women United (DWU), who is hosting the bi-annual DWU Conference next summer in one of the hottest conference destinations: Miami, Florida!

So far, we’ve created an event site, added a call for proposals and their sponsorship packages to the Marketplace.

LOSS: Our t-shirt fundraiser was a flop.

We tried, we really did.

The reality is that crowdfunding is a massive effort. The checklist of things to do made it painfully obvious that we need a team. With a team, we will be able to achieve big goals.

Last Monday, we had a decision to make: end or extend?

If we extended and continued with drumming up contributions by supporters, we’d have to spend 24/7 on it.

On the other hand, if we end the fundraiser, we can focus on our customers, content marketing, keep up with re-engaging our 1300+ users, and follow up on the leads we do have.

Our decision was to end the fundraiser.

The original goal was to raise enough cash so we can do more than survive… to be able to hire and pay for keyword ads, pay for software upgrade fees, and so on.

We adjusted our goals to focus on generating 1-2 sales per week. This will allow us to survive in the short term while working on long term goals.

The truth is, we were stretched to the breaking point. It is a huge relief to stay focused on what really matters: the Eventida web app.

MILESTONE: Major progress & improvements on Eventida.com!

Continual improvement and troubleshooting is always our priority.

We just published a change-log, listing most of the improvements and all major features we have released since June. A lot of progress has been made, including new invite system on private and public event lists, a marketplace, a tour of our features, and more!

MILESTONE: Pitch deck and projections for investors are done!

In order to really succeed with Eventida, we need funding. Lots of it. These days, investors don’t want traditional business plans, they expect to see a pitch deck; a presentation with 10-20 slides, that gives a simple introduction to the business, its potential and projections.

We set very conservative customer revenue and growth rate projections, compared to industry averages. The result?

Eventida has the potential to be worth millions of dollars by the end of 2020!

Exciting times. No wonder the software and mobile app industry attracts so many investors! If you are one or know one, want to see our pitch deck? Ask!

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