Midnight Text: "My company has 90 days to live"

👋 Hi, it’s Kevin, and I’m here with a 🔥 edition of The Midnight Text, Forum Ventures’ bi-weekly newsletter that provides honest answers to the unspoken questions that keep founders awake at night.

I’m a Managing Director at Forum Ventures, guiding portfolio founders on the zero to one journey. My journey as a founder was anything but smooth. Although we had a great outcome––bootstrapping to a couple million in revenue and selling to Deel in 2021––I made every mistake you can make. And I’m passionate about helping founders avoid those same mistakes.

Up today: My personal Midnight Text moment. 

"My company has 90 days to live."

That’s how I started a blog post back in November 2018. I even bought a domain—failingfounders.com—because if my company was going down, I figured I might as well document it.

It’s hard to read that post today. I can see the pain I was in. I was drowning.

At the time, our startup was running out of cash—fast. We had just pivoted, and while we were seeing just enough momentum to convince ourselves we might make it, it wasn’t nearly enough. The walls were closing in, and I felt the weight of it all.

I wasn’t giving up. But I was preparing for the worst.

Then, something happened.

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The moment that changed everything

Before I could hit publish on that post, a massive logo came inbound through our website.

Within a few weeks, they became a flagship customer, staying with us for years. It gave us the lifeline we needed.

Three years later, we had grown to a few million in revenue and sold to Deel.

Keep going—but be brutally honest with yourself

If your company is running out of time, I won’t feed you generic startup advice about resilience. Sometimes shutting it down is the right move. Not every company should push forward, and there’s no shame in that.

But if you’re still seeing positive signals—even small ones—you might be closer than you think.

The hardest part? Progress and failure feel the same in real-time. You might feel like you’re failing, but that doesn’t mean you actually are.

How do you know if you should push through?

Here’s what I wish someone had told me back then:

1️⃣ Check the signals, not just your emotions. When you’re drowning, everything feels existential. But what are the numbers saying? Is there real interest from customers? Are deals inching forward? Is there any momentum?

2️⃣ Turn a 90 day death sentence into 180 days of breathing room. If you're staring at the clock running out, what’s the one thing you can do to extend your runway? Maybe it's a scrappy revenue play, a creative cost-cutting move, or a Hail Mary partnership. Buy yourself more time.

3️⃣ Find other founders to talk to. Investors, advisors, and books are helpful—but when I was deep in it, the best advice came from founders who had been there before. The ones who knew what it was like to stare down failure and fight their way out. How do you find a fellow founder to connect with? All the usual ways –– Slack groups, online forums, events / meetups, introductions from your network, cold outreach… it might feel daunting and time consuming, but trust me, it’s worth it. 

And one more thing: check in on a founder friend

Most founders won’t tell you how hard things actually are. They’ll smile, give you the usual "things are good!" update, and keep carrying the weight alone. But under the surface, they might be one email away from shutting it all down.

So this week, reach out to a founder you know. No agenda, no asks—just a simple, "Hey, thinking about you. How are you really doing?"

Sometimes, all we need is a reminder that we’re not in this alone. ❤️

Kevin

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