I was at a conference a couple of years ago watching Dhiraj Mukherjee tell his whirlwind story to a thousand people of co-founding his startup, Shazam, that music app we all use. Little did I know, the impact his inspirational words would have on me personally and our own journey for miPic.

At the time, I was extremely exhausted, probably depressed and unquestionably burnt out, living out of a suitcase at friends’ houses. I faced a very serious realisation that miPic was just a few months away from closing before we’d even got started due to an incredibly difficult situation that seemed impossible to solve. What was a year of pride and ecstasy building our company and brand became a nightmare as new investment in the company was blocked.

Two months after watching this man on stage at Startup Grind, I was standing on a train at Waterloo in London, slumped and dazed when he stepped onto my carriage next to me.

During Dhiraj’s talk at the conference, he gave a little anecdote from the Shazam story which stuck with me that summer. Back when the company was in its inception, the founding team were really struggling with the functionality of their product– specifically the algorithm which detects the song and sends users the artist, title and so on. They were short on funding, each of the founders were looking at ways to support the business or step out and go back into full-time work. They almost gave up. Their lead Tech Scientist asked to be left alone for some time while he gave it one last shot at building the code. Some time later he reappeared and cracked it. Shazam was born. They kept persisting, kept pushing and found a solution.

Background

Just four months before the conference I was unbelievably ecstatic–  we had just launched miPic v1.0 after six months of hard and ridiculously long hours, getting the product out in time for Christmas. With our small team in London and an agency of 10 developers in Argentina, f**k it was fun.

We turned on the new website to much relief and in January 2016 received a few nice surprises. The company was recognised by Inc.com and featured by The Next Web. We were also invited in to meet one of the industry’s notorious Venture Capital Investors, who’d previously invested in the likes of Spotify, Kayak and Facebook. We were all on a high, the team was bouncing and it seemed like we were on track… in the blink of an eye our whole plan was derailed.

(This deserves a post of it’s own, so I’ll come back to that later.)  

A surreal couple of months followed, what was once a very exciting time quickly flipped into fear, anxiety and inconsolable heartbreak. Our roadmap for the year was to build and launch the platform, fix any bugs over the new year period and start marketing with a new round of investment. I made the decision not to accept a proposed new round of investment because it would have killed us, so I was suddenly out scouting critical funding, with a product ready to market and no budget to operate, or to live.

The Train

To give ourselves a fighting chance, I decided to sacrifice my own living expenses, leaving my home of 5 years in Clapham to stay with friends and sofa surf. I would use the remaining Crowdfunding cash left in the tank to hire a marketing assistant to lighten my load so I could focus on chasing down new investment. On this particular day, I chased Dhiraj, right down that train carriage and stood next to him.

“Hi.”

Fight or Flight – When our back is against the wall we do things without deliberating or finding excuses, it’s instinct. No matter how tired or burnt out I was that day, there was no way I was leaving that train without speaking to him. With nothing to lose I said “Hi, excuse me”. I introduced myself and thanked him for sharing his Shazam story at the conference. In twenty or thirty brief seconds I presented my business to him and showed him our app –  miPic. He raised an eyebrow and agreed to meet me for coffee, so we swapped business cards. That evening I sat on the River Thames in Wandsworth eating dinner with my ridiculously excitable Argentinian friend ‘Caro’ and a new found energy, one that wasn’t scared but fuelled and inspired.

The following week, we met in Pret a Manger and I told Dhiraj my problem which halted our progress. With his head in his hands on the table shaking his head in frustration, he said he wanted to help. One sentence that stood out was “you have to pound the pavement Carl and don’t stop”. 

The next day he wrote an incredible heartfelt email to his closest friends in the startup community with a rallying cry – the email subject read ‘Help a fellow founder in need’. It finished on “I don’t know Carl personally, but this is an opportunity to help someone in a way they will never forget.” Now I’m not embarrassed to say as a 36 year old modern-day man, when I read his email, tears rolled down my face for about half an hour. (Thank god, my friends weren’t at home ?)

Keep Going!

That period was the hardest emotional and physical struggle of my life and there was a glimmer of hope. I met all of Dhiraj’s contacts that month for coffee, all great guys but were unable to help directly to solve my problem. This show of support from total strangers gave me the extra kick I needed to keep pushing 18 hours a day, 7 days a week for months. Dhiraj kept in touch over email throughout the autumn with encouragement and intros and it went right to the wire. Thankfully there was a solution that most didn’t think was possible, and we did pull off a miracle to give miPic the future it deserved raising £1.3m investment 6 months after meeting Dhiraj.

The moral of the story is to never doubt your ability to make things happen, even if your exhausted on a train heading home for dinner. With belief, positivity and obsessive hard work, it’s all possible. 

I lost a few things that year but never gave up, I pounded the pavement as Dhiraj asked. If you too are a founder going through hell– keep going, you may surprise yourself at what is waiting for you around the corner. Or even on a train… ?? Meeting Dhiraj really gave me that turbo boost of motivation and restored my faith in human beings when I needed it most.

Startup Grind – Fireside Chat

Three years after meeting Dhiraj on that train, on Thursday, August 8th 2019 we shared a fireside Q&A in association with Startup Grind London.

We discussed Dhiraj’s journey with Shazam from inception to exit and how our chance train encounter empowered me to push on and enable miPic to overcome a mountainous hurdle, saving me from despair that summer. Our talk gave a real insight into the pitfalls and ecstatic moments we encounter founding startups, from seed funding, to crowdfunding and VC investment.

Just tap below to watch the full Startup Grind chat!

Learnings

1. Be prepared for banana skins when you least expect it

If you have investments in the pipeline, there’s a chance things may change, never be desperate and don’t stop pushing until the deal is done.

2. Never be afraid to say – Hi!

When you need help – ASK! Everyone you know and more. Don’t be afraid, the worst that can happen is they say no.

3. Be Positive, magic can happen

Be persistant and be relentless. Exhaust every possible option towards your goal. If you push hard enough, the universe will make it happen

If this post resonates with you in any way, shout me in the Comments below! Did you overcome a challenging period which seemed impossible?