Oddbean

I think you just need a diff business strategy and financial planning WIll. It’s just a bump in the road. I have done many stupid mistakes when I started off (likely still am) but there is 2 most important thing to remember : 1. Understand that the failure of the project is not a representation of the person. People might see the 20% of the failure, but you got 80% right and that counts for something 2. Do correct what you got wrong, learn what you don't know or at least identify what it is that you know and don’t know so that you can get the help needed for it. On other things 1. In terms of money splitting, I don't know who is who, but if you split 50% money, then 50% of the job and responsibility goes along with it. If it's a 10% job, then it's 10% funds and so forth. I am guessing it's 50% here otherwise this needs to be renegotiated. 2. Your first year 2023 is your pre-seed year (building up) - Your goal likely is to grow 10% - 20% MoM user engagement ? - You will do minimum marketing to find users to test your product (chk out zero-cost marketing note) - You will be fine tuning the business model and basic usability - You don't want to charge users here - too soon, too raw Say for example, for pre-seed your cost is 1 developer + CEO full time (~72k) + infrastructure (~20k) + marketing (5k) External devs/design ($30k) Buffer : $23k Total ~$150k 3. Your second year (seed / market validation) - Your marketing is going to be slightly heavier - Your development is going to be heavier, faster turnaround time required with more users - You will need better infrastructure - You may need 2 devs and other backups Perhaps total funding ~200k - $250k In your second year is when you start figuring out a revenue plan (3rd year might be a good time to launch subscription etc as you have loyal users). Given at this point you might have a substantial amount of users for Damus - you can also build any on “the other stuff” and separate as 2 companies, and raise VC funds for that application. Damus will remain untouchable. Alternatively asides open sats, i don't know if there are other fundings but i am sure there are. As you grow users in millions on this freedom network, your tune will be different. At that point, Damus alone will be raising millions as well to sustain. This is just a bump in the road. Now is a good time to reflect. If you need help with financial projection and business strategy I can help you with that. But this is just a bump on the road. When you are feeling better, put on your big boy pants on and rock this. You got this.