Gaingels

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This year, I am incredibly thankful for everything in life. Life Update + Some Learnings 1. How to build MVP in 12 hours. 2. How to gain momentum 3. How to raise money in the harsh fundraising env I proposed to my wife @IsaMacedaAli, a day before Thanksgiving last year. Weeks before proposing, I told her that I had been living off of credit cards for almost a year trying to make my last company (@DaoHelper) work, and we might not be able to pay the rent from January to March 2023. “I will live under a bridge with you” " she replied without hesitation. I promised myself not to ever put us in that situation. We married in December 2022, and the total wedding cost was < $1500, including the ring and food for 40+ people. The weeks and months leading up to our marriage weren’t short of a Bollywood movie drama, but that’s a different story for another time. TaxGPT's origin story and MVP: February 2023: $40k under credit card debt. I am interviewing for 3 different jobs and trying to figure out if Isabella and I need to file taxes together or separately since we have been married for only two weeks in the last tax year. I couldn’t find the answer to this simple question for 30 minutes and decided to solve this problem. I built the first version of TaxGPT with no-code tools. Thank you, @sethjkramer (@nocodemba), for the discount. I built the MVP in 8 to 12 hours and launched it. My wildest dream was to have 100 users. Fast forward to today, TaxGPT has 6,000+ users asking 11,000+ tax questions. (MVP Picture) How to cold email Investors and get response? My cold emails got @mcuban @DavidSacks, and @Jason attention. Email template in the following tweet. (Complete tips in the first reply) Founder University Jason invited me to join @FounderUni. I was slightly apprehensive about joining a pre-accelerator since that was my third company, and I didn't have $500. I told @KSchricks I couldn’t pay the $500 fee, and she waived it. (BTW, the $500 fee is refundable if you complete 12 weeks). This was the best decision in hindsight. Jason, Kelly, and @preshdkumar are excellent. I learned to perfect my pitch. The push toward weekly progress and revenue was super helpful. Thank you so much for believing and investing in TaxGPT. @FounderUni is accepting applications for cohort 7. Raising during the worst fundraising environment Q2 and Q3 were the worst fundraising quarters on record (Source: Angellist + Carta data). I heard nearly 200 No's from start to finish to complete the round. Announcement: TaxGPT closed the angel round amidst the worst fundraising quarter on the record. Thank you @LAUNCH @GaingelsVC @mandizzay @obaid and many others that aren't on Twitter. A HUGE thank you to #buildinginpublic and #TaxTwitter for feedback every step of the way. We are launching something special for +. If you are a tax professional DM me or leave a comment below. Personal update and thoughts on individual financial wellness and tax filing I am debt-free, and my credit score jumped 200+ points in the last 6 months. 1st: I don't recommend taking out credit card debts. Don't go there. It's awful, and if it wasn't for my wife. I would probably be homeless by now. There are tons of tools for wealth management, but there aren't a lot of tools for teaching basic financial hygiene or getting out of debt. TaxGPT is building these tools. If you want early access. Sign up to TaxGPT dot com

We’re building the cross-platform tooling we’ve always wanted to use–supporting trusted accounts, payments, and identity out-of-the-box. Early access available today on Product Hunt! producthunt.com/posts/velvet-a…

We begin our Pride LGBTQ+ Trailblazer campaign with a conversation with @thione , founder, investor and more. Lorenzo supports LGBTQ+ founders through Start Out & @GaingelsVC , a syndicate for LGBTQ-led business which has invested $600m in the past 3 years.bit.ly/3tiEbAq