Hi everyone,
Last issue, we explored the strategy and positioning of Acquired, a well-known tech podcast in the Silicon Valley circle, and how their approach helped them attract their desired audience and build their own following.
This issue introduces Jessica, dubbed the next Mark Zuckerberg, a 20-year-old genius engineer who successfully raised $1 million in funding, along with the story of the decisions that helped her climb out of hell with InDinero.
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Genius Engineer Jessica Raises $1 Million at Age 20
Jessica Mah started coding at age 8, founded her first company at 12, and dropped out of high school at 15 to study computer science at UC Berkeley. In 2010, alongside Andy, she co-founded InDinero, a startup that successfully raised $1 million in funding. This funding included investments from YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim and seed fund 500 Startups. Raising $1 million landed her features in The New York Times, CNN, and TechCrunch, with some even calling her the female Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s founder and CEO).
This narrative reads like it belongs in a biography of a successful icon. Reflecting on it, what was I doing at 20? But are things always so smooth?
After securing $1 million in startup funding in May 2010, Jessica initiated a new round of hiring to fuel rapid growth and a quick product launch. They rented a stylish office in San Francisco, complete with a luxurious bathtub. Jessica proudly noted that they boasted about the bathtub and threw amazing parties. To make a splash in the market and prove they were a team of genius engineers, they launched their product on July 3, 2010—a software that helped businesses visually track their cash flow.
Can you guess if this became a widely adopted hit product?
Idealistic Visions Meet Harsh Reality
The result? Few businesses were willing to pay tens of dollars a month just to visually track their cash flow. Only a small number of well-off companies paid, more as a supportive donation than a necessity. Because these clients were financially secure, media outlets hyped it up, claiming the users of Jessica’s product were major corporations, making it seem like she was achieving further success.
However, Jessica knew the truth: very few companies paid, and revenue was minimal, yet the media coverage painted a picture of triumph. In interviews, Jessica admitted she felt like a fraud at the time.
Each software update saw Jessica excitedly tell her co-founder Andy, “Next month, with the new version, we’ll achieve big success.” But the updates fell short of expectations. Another month later, she’d say, “This time, this update will bring us big success,” only for it to underperform again. She made many such predictions, but none came to fruition.
In the summer of 2011, an investor asked, “Hey Jessica, have you ever fired anyone?”
Jessica replied, “No, of course not. I’m really good at hiring.”
The investor countered, “No, you’re lying. There must be some unfit people in the company.”
This struck a chord with Jessica, sparking a moment of awareness that things might not be as smooth as she thought.
Another investor approached, asking, “Hey, Jessica, how’s it going?”
She said, “Things are going well.”
The investor pressed, “Come on, how’s it really going?”
Jessica finally admitted things weren’t as rosy as they seemed.
The investor responded, “Yeah, that hot tub was a bit excessive… It’s not too late to change. You can shift direction, get back on track, and figure out a solution.”
Jessica realized they were nearing the end of the $1 million, with annual revenue barely reaching $100,000. A 20-year-old genius engineer, once celebrated by major media, faced bankruptcy within a year, with a product few were willing to buy.
Decision 1: Restart the Product, Conduct In-Depth Client Interviews
At this point, Jessica was willing to acknowledge her mistakes. She called all employees, informing them the company was running out of funds and encouraging them to seek other opportunities. She downsized the team to just herself and her co-founder, Andy. They vacated the office, moving operations back to her rented apartment—no more luxurious bathtubs—and cut costs to the bare minimum.
She admitted that their pursuit of rapid expansion led to hiring unnecessary staff and retaining unfit employees. The engineers focused on elegant, perfect code, with each update aimed at making the software faster to uphold their image as genius engineers. All features were designed to prove their brilliance rather than address real needs.
Jessica realized she’d overlooked the critical question: what product did clients actually want, and what could solve their problems?
Next, Jessica and Andy decided to leave the office every Friday to interview friends and clients, observing how they used the product and gathering as much user feedback as possible. They knew they needed to survey dozens of companies to understand what the market truly needed.
Jessica discovered that small businesses cared less about tracking cash flow and more about avoiding tax penalties and managing internal expenses and taxes effectively. In other words, clients needed financial and accounting software. They then hired a third employee—a accountant—to help Jessica develop a trustworthy financial and accounting software to replace manual processes.
Decision 2: Reject Big Money for Quick Growth, Embrace Small, Long-Term Investments and Partners
After the grueling process of laying off the entire team in 2011, Jessica gained a deeper appreciation for the importance of her decisions. One of her most significant choices was rejecting investments from large institutions (in plain terms, turning down big corporate money). Jessica explained that accepting such funds would force them back onto the old path of rapid expansion, excessive hiring, and chasing unimportant metrics, preventing them from quietly building their product. Instead, they sought long-term investors willing to commit for over a decade. Using the stock market as an analogy, Jessica wanted investors who’d hold a stock for five or ten years—quiet, small-scale investors—rather than active traders flipping stocks monthly or annually. She emphasized that she was in it for the “long run,” not a “sprint.”
For the next three years, they kept a low profile, developed their product without chasing rapid growth, and avoided venture capital funds, gradually building their user base. Three years later, Jessica grew InDinero to about 200 employees, with revenue nearing $3 million in 2014 and $5.5 million in 2015. Compared to the near-bankrupt company with just two employees in 2011, this represented hundreds-fold growth, all due to a redefined market positioning, a long-term growth strategy, and a clear focus on solving client pain points.
Reflection
From a media-hyped engineering prodigy of the next era to facing bankruptcy in just one year. From wanting to prove her genius through a product to a complete failure.
This journey was like a fall from heaven to hell. What would I have done? If it were the past me, untested by much hardship or pain, I might have doubted myself and taken a long time to recover. A recent workplace setback taught me that life is an ongoing practice, a continuous internship. Each stage prepares us for the next, and tomorrow’s presentation or the day-after’s report isn’t the final defining moment of my life—it’s just a comma in the middle. Viewing myself from this perspective has helped me objectively assess my achievements and performance. I’m not trying to prove my genius through presentations or work results; I’m focused on solving problems. When issues arise, I avoid over-criticizing myself or sinking into a slump where I can’t face my mistakes.
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