16 Weeks of Meet-Ting: What We Learned Building + Fundraising Early Stage

I put together a digest of the last few months building Ting - the good, the meh, and the lessons I can imagine me wanting to tell future founders so they can dodge the bruises and get to the good stuff quicker...

The good:
- Nearly 1,000 users - ~50% MoM growth with no ads.
- Added Outlook, Teams, Zoom + multi-calendar.
- Launched Memories, micro product moments when the AI remembers small details + you feel seen.
- Team is now 2 founders, 2 engineers, AI QA + day-one consultant. Oh, and a baby was born yesterday!
- Inbound pilots from a top 10 tech company, top 3 ad network, top 3 bank.
- Great investor convos at Web Summit + SF.

The meh:
- Multi-party autonomous AI is still hard, even seems challenging for the infinite resource of OpenAI.
- More features = more bugs. We're on it.
- AI agent fatigue everywhere. I thought LinkedIn was noisy then I walked a block in San Fran, it's competitive for mind share out there.
- Some VCs still bucket us as “AI secretary” wave - a reminder to tell the story clearly and focus on what makes you different + distinctive.

Founder Lessons (the part I wish someone told me earlier):
- You’re the product. VCs aren’t doing you a favour: you’re giving them a chance to invest in you and what you’re building. Stay grounded, but keep that energy in mind.
- Pitching takes reps. You’ll tell 20 versions of your story before one really clicks. Two things that helped me:
1. Ask what their past investments have in common.
2. Start with one great anecdote; if it lands, you’ll see it instantly. I now have one that I love to tell and the flashes in their eyes feel rewarding.
- US vs EU: US wants vision + “return the fund.” EU wants GTM, repeatability, CAC/LTV comfort.
- Fundraising is random. I met one founder at $2M ARR who can’t get funded and another at $3M ARR with a hyper-competitive round.
- Rejection is data. Comments like “not differentiated” can feel insane when you live it day in and out, but if you unpack them later, they sharpen your strategy.
- Investors don’t live in your bubble. They see patterns you don’t, which is useful (even when painful).
- Vision > temptation. We debated going B2B-only because of inbound, but doubled down on the bigger vision: B2C + B2B + TBC. Keeping the TBC for the checks sorry... ;-)
- Start early. The more calls you take, the better you get. Pre seed is reported to take 16 weeks, so be early and don't be desperate.
- SF energy is real. Meeting with Google, Microsoft and OpenAI opened new doors for Ting.

Any other lessons or wisdom hiding in the community here? Let me know!

If you’re building or fundraising, I hope this helps...

Full post on Substack & more: https://chiefting.substack.com/p/if-youre-an-early-stage-founder-read

Dan