After the first week of fundraising, things seemed like smooth sailing. We had a big-name investor on board, which we thought would help us attract even more. But in the following month, we managed to raise only another €100k, bringing us to a total of €250k. With the semester over and students on summer break, we lost traction, which didn’t help our momentum. We decided to extend our investor deadline and kept working, leading us to gather in Paris with the core team to decide our next steps.

Ladislas organized an incredible week, packed with meetings and inspiring encounters. As part of our plan to expand into France, we hosted a dinner with YouTubers and fellow startup founders. It was exciting and eye-opening. We even met with an executive from BeReal, freshly acquired, and the founder of Amo (the same team behind Zenly later acquired by Snapchat), a competing platform that had already raised over €18 million. What struck us was that, despite their massive funding, our results with less than €100k invested weren’t so far behind. It forced us to reflect on the maturity of the market.

However, reality hit hard. With just €250k raised, we’d have little budget left for development after covering living expenses in California. We’d be left with barely €150k—hardly enough to scale. Even though opportunities were knocking, and we had the chance to continue living the founder life, it wasn’t just about staying afloat. We wanted to make a real impact. And while the platform showed potential, it wasn’t growing to the level we had hoped—no hundreds of thousands of users, not yet.

So, we made one of the toughest decisions: to take a step back. It wasn’t a failure; it was a strategic retreat. We knew the market was in turmoil, but we also knew we’d be ready to come back stronger when the time was right. The fight wasn’t over; it was just postponed.