Most people see the $200 million ARR. They don’t see the summer in Spain with no air conditioning, a dwindling bank account, and investor rejection emails piling up. They don’t see the moment you realize you might have to tell your co-founders it’s over. That’s the part worth talking about.
It was the summer of 2023 and our startup Fanvue was in trouble. Months earlier, we’d suddenly found out that we had way less money in the bank than we thought. To fix it, we’d been reaching out to investors and getting nothing. The email responses still haunt me today: “Thanks Joel, but I’ll pass,” read one. “Out of our scope,” said another.
This went on for months. Growth slowed, and then stopped completely. What had been working before just stopped.
Every founder has heard this story. Nothing prepares you for when it’s yours. Even when you know, there is this voice in your head saying that all that effort you put in could amount to nothing.
I remember we were staying in a villa in Spain. It was the middle of summer — no air conditioning — and we were all sweating as we plotted our outreach. I had a leaderboard up showing how many investors each of us had contacted. The writing was on the wall.
And yet, not long before, everything had been working.
We’d raised $792,000 in October 2020 and $1 million in March 2022, launched the platform in 2022, and Fanvue was growing. Our idea — that creators could get paid by selling direct to fans, rather than by advertisers — was sound. All the late nights, the hard work, the endless debate about whether this was a good idea had started to pay off.
I Knew What Creators Needed Because I Had Been One
The reason I understood creators was that, once upon a time, I was one. At 16, I was making $100,000 playing FIFA on YouTube. At 17, I dropped out of school to make videos full time. My parents thought I was crazy — in my room playing video games all day — until they saw my bank balance.
People sometimes think it was easy money. It wasn’t. I started when I was 13 and it was not a cool thing to do back then. I hated being on camera, and it took a thousand videos before I started to make money. I made one thousand videos in one thousand days — and then things really scaled. At its peak, I had 2.5 million subscribers.
Then came the other challenge: having money, fame, and that level of pressure at a very early age. I was so paranoid that one day it would just stop that I had to continually raise the bar — thinking of new stunts and challenges that would keep people engaged.
I had fulfilled the dream. And then, around 19, I realized it wasn’t my dream anymore. I wanted to build a company. You can’t half-build a company, and you can’t half-run a YouTube channel. I had to choose.
The Moment That Defined Us
On the day in 2023 when we understood how close to the edge we were, my co-founders and I had to choose too. Challenges can define you, and I think for us this was the moment when we thought: this is our time to make it count. Even if we had failed, we were going to give it everything.
We went out to mostly new investors and persuaded them that a bridge round was worthwhile. Finally, we got in a room with the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company and pitched an investment round that would give the company six months of runway. We had to close him.
We did. And two years later — in January 2026 — we announced a $22.1 million Series A. More importantly, we’re transforming the industry with an ARR of $200 million and 26 consecutive record months. New creators — like Cardi B and Alisha Lehmann — join all the time. We’re building the infrastructure that will power the creator economy in this next era of monetization.
Three Things I’d Tell a Founder About to Lose It All
First, trust your co-founders. Will Monange and Harry Fitzgerald were in the trenches with me. It was our victory. Everyone’s individual strengths got us through.
Second, obsess over product-market fit and the end customer — not your pitch deck, not your valuation, not your press coverage.
Third, when you’re building fast there will always be fires. Be deliberate about which ones you put out — and which ones you let burn. Not everything can go your way. Pick your battles, focus on what matters, and you’ll get through it.
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