When my second company (that I never talk about) failed, I walked away with...

~$100k of credit card debt

Severe depression

I drove for Lyft to make my credit card minimum payments

My confidence was wrecked

And my son was 2 years old https://twitter.com/anothercohen/status/1178726484531453957

My job prospects were... weird

@cdixon got me in the door at @a16z where I went through 6 (8?) rounds of interviews in Q3/Q4 2014

I proposed...

Invest $100M into @mlz & @thumbtack

If possible, short @Homejoy

Wait & see on @sprig

They passed on me

No other VC firm would even interview me

Because I wasn’t an engineer, I couldn’t even get PM interviews at companies where I knew the founders!

It didn’t help that I was depressed AF and my confidence was shattered

A few friends took pity on me and offered up consulting gigs

I needed the fucking money, but in my heart, I resented being an employee

I still desperately wanted to be a founder

And I was a shitty employee

Only one place offered me a job: Marketing manager. Pay $70k/year.

$70k to live in San Francisco... with a kid in daycare and ~$100k in credit card debt

I had trouble even getting job interviews

The whole thing felt hopeless

In 2015, I hatched a plan

1) Enroll in @HackReactor, a coding boot camp

2) Pay the $35,000 tuition upfront, with a credit card (this was pre- @LambdaSchool)

3) Pay off my student pains with a cash advance from a credit card

4) Declare bankruptcy

5) Get a job

I remember the day in July 2015 when I called my dad to tell him my plan:

“Dad, I have failed. I am not cut out to be an entrepreneur.”

Tears are streaming down my face as I write this now, years later

It was one of the worst days of my life

But it was also weirdly freeing

For the first time in a long time, I had a plan. I was back in control!

The prospect of bankruptcy sucked

But 7 years of financial bad luck seemed a helluva lot better than a decade of debt slavery

Bankruptcy was also bounded & clear in way that the alternative was not

It was a good plan!

I felt relieved

Until... I got a text from @TheRoboLinda

A mutual friend had introduced us

We’d both interviewed for the same job @a16z

She wanted to start a robotics company

I pitched her on dishwashing robots for restaurants

Over a random lunch

The DAY AFTER I called my dad

She texted me

“OMG remember that idea you had? awesome idea! Let’s do it as a startup!”

Me: OH HELL NO

She talked me into it

...the rest is a story for another day

But don’t tell me that being an employee is riskier than being a founder

Maybe if you’re the kind of founder who went from Stanford to Facegoogle to your funded-on-day-one startup

But I know several founders—and zero employees—who’ve dealt with worse

/fin

To everyone who’s responded to this

You’ve been so kind and encouraging

I cried as I wrote this, remembering back to this time

Your grateful notes and personal stories mean a lot to me

It feels like the best of twitter

THANK YOU for the love

Truly

After this thread went viral, I talked about my journey with @AndrewWarner on @Mixergy

Watch & listen to the full story here https://mixergy.com/interviews/live-with-matt-mireles/

Thx man!