Natalie Barbu

We spent two years building a product that no one actually used.

When we first started Rella, I thought we needed to be the ultimate tool for every single person on the internet. Creators, talent managers, podcast networks—you name it, we were building for them. But trying to solve everyone’s problem meant we weren’t really solving anyone’s.

We made all the classic founder mistakes. We waited too long to charge customers because we were scared of the feedback. We threw money at influencer marketing before we even had product-market fit. And when we finally had organic momentum on our content, we didn’t put paid spend behind it to amplify the reach.

It took almost running out of money to force us to strip it all down and rebuild. Now, Rella does one thing really well: we help social media managers and their teams plan, collaborate, and publish without the chaos.

Building a startup is mostly just making very expensive mistakes and hoping you learn from them fast enough to survive.

Comment MISTAKES and I’ll send you the link to watch the full breakdown. What’s the hardest lesson you’ve had to learn in your own career or business?