Serese Selanders

@TangibleWords @solusguard @ProductsWai Appreciate the chance to talk with you about this important topic! #WomenInTech #WomenInBusiness #womeninsafety

If you’ve been following our posts, you’re probably aware that Tangible Words is a women-owned business. We wanted to have an episode of the Company Growth Podcast about what women face as business leaders. Listen to the talk here: hubs.ly/Q02nLFlw0 @solusguard @ProductsWai

Happy International Women's Day 2024! Today we celebrate the incredible achievements, courage, and strength of women around the globe. Every woman deserves to live without the fear of harm, to pursue her dreams, and to flourish in every aspect of life. #IWD2024 #inspireinclusion

After 2 incredible days at the @APPA_Network Executive Summit, the Winter Training Institute is about to begin! Let's do this! #womenintech #safety

That’s a wrap on the NSC’s Future of EHS Conference! It was such a pleasure to co-present with Guillermo Castillo and Kate Crawford. A huge thanks to the @NSCsafety for this opportunity. Already looking forward to the next event! #safety #futureofehs #womenintech

Excited to be speaking at @NSCsafety Future of EHS in Louisville next week! Join Guillermo Castillo, Kate Crawford, & myself for a workshop on Implementing Safety Technology. #technology #SafetyInnovation #EHSConference #womenintech nsc.org/futureofehs

I can't emphasize enough the value of the support we've received from @cultivatorsk over the years. What a special organization with an incredible team! Thanks for highlighting @solusguard and the amazing @BunnyHugJoel!

Final prep on my presentation for next week's @NSCSafety in New Orleans. Excited to share best practices on how organizations can effectively implement safety technology! 🤓 💡Questions are rewarded with @SolusGuard swag! 👕 #NSCExpo #safety #loneworkersafety #womenintech

🗽 The city that never sleeps 🎉 meets the team that never stops innovating! 💡 Join SolusGuard at Booth 406 at #APPANYC2023 🚖 and chat with our Founder/CEO @Serese to learn more about our innovative technology 📱 for protecting parole and probation employees. #safetytech 🌟

Our Founder/CEO @serese is enjoying the amazing energy💥at #collisionconf ! Stop by Booth B107 to say hi 👋 and learn 🤓 more about SolusGuard.  #safetytech

Listening to master entrepreneur @DavidCoode at #Collision2023

#collision2023 come & say hi on Wed! Booth B107 - shouldn't be hard to find, right? I hear just a few (35,000) people are going. 😆 #collisionconf #collisionconference #womenintech #tech

@dagorenouf @logologydesign No one ever talks about the hard parts. It's always unicorns & confetti. This is reality. I applaud your bravery, vulnerability, & humility in sharing your story. For those of us who have been through it (& are still going through it), thank you.

My wife and I decided to give up on our startup @logologydesign It was a tough decision to make, especially after spending 5 years and almost all of our savings to bootstrap it. But the reality is that despite our best efforts, we never found a way to grow beyond survival profitability. Sure we had some wins, and I'm proud that we brought it to ~$3k revenue per month (+ $5k from my twitter course). But with the cost of living + running a business in France, it's barely enough to survive. And because our product doesn't have recurring revenue, we have to find 100+ new customers each month. This puts us under massive pressure. We thought of trying to switch to a recurring revenue model and invest in SEO, but with the uncertainty caused by A.I (both for acquiring customers and designing logos), we don't feel confident it would be enough. We could also try to raise money and hire a couple of people to offload some of the pressure... But after 5 years of fighting, we're exhausted, out of motivation, and out of money. So we decided it's better to call it quits 😞 I feel ashamed to not be one of the "successful founders" I see on twitter every day. I feel stupid that all the time and money spent wasn’t enough to make it. I also feel silly for celebrating that we reached profitability a few months ago... then a couple of months later it was already back below survival level 🤦‍♂️ I stopped tweeting this past few weeks because I feel like a loser and a failure. I’m afraid people will lose interest in me if I stop sharing motivating tweets. But at some point, I had to face the truth that I just can’t do it anymore. Last February I suffered a massive burnout. My heart rate started going crazy every time I stood up. I had to lay in bed for weeks and it was so bad that I thought it was long covid. Now I'm able to walk again but I need to take it slow and monitor my heart rate for random spikes throughout the day. The burnout also triggered a problem with my eyes. For the past month I get dazzled by bright lights like computer screens or traffic lights. Even just a sunny day is difficult to handle. I went to the eye doctor and they said spending so much time looking at screens without rest eventually damaged my eyes, and I'll need to wear glasses to see normally again. Destroying my health like this was not what I envisioned when we decided to bootstrap a startup 5 years ago. Our dream was to build a useful product, make a living on our own terms, and help other founders do the same. We were idealistic and thought having a good idea + working hard was enough to succeed. But competing in the crowded logo niche means that we struggled to make ends meet from the day we launched. We also made some bad strategic decisions which meant we had to overwork constantly just to stay above water. We didn't have time for hobbies, fun, or even romantic time with each other anymore. We spent every waking hour worrying about how to get our next customer. In the rare vacations we took, we couldn't relax because we kept thinking about it. Every. Single. Day. Somewhere on the way to chasing our dreams, we got lost. Instead of trying to live the life we wanted, we started sacrificing everything we cared about just to reach “success” at any cost. The burnout I had was a wake-up call that we can't keep going like this. The glasses I wear will forever remind me of the limits of my body. So that's why we're making this drastic change. My wife will keep the site running while she figures out what she does next. She might simply go back to designing custom logos like before, so if you need one just hit her up @LucieBaratte. (it starts at $3k but she's one of the best in the biz) On my end, I decided to go back to a job. I never thought I'd do this but I really need to put a stop to the crazy hours and constant financial pressure. I hope working on a product without having to worry about money will make work enjoyable again. I think someday I'll come back to building startups, but for now, I have no motivation for it. I need time to recover and live a simpler life for a while. Now even though it's a difficult time, there's one positive thing I'd like to mention. When I was at my lowest, dozens of friends I made on Twitter supported me. I exchanged DMs with many founders who gave me insights and perspective, and made it 10x easier to find a way out. Having followers is nice, but when I hit rock bottom and stopped tweeting, it wasn't worth much. However, the friends I made along the way had my back and it made all the difference. So I just want to say THANK YOU to all who supported me during this tough time. You truly are the best part of this journey 🥲 I'll be back with new tweets soon. Lots of lessons I want to share. Love you all 💙

200+ South African firefighters landed in Edmonton, Canada to assist in the fight against the raging wildfire. 🇿🇦🇨🇦

Looks great! @solusguard

🌟 SolusGuard is delighted to have our wearable panic button showcased at the @ASSPSafety )#Safety2023 Fashion Show this morning! Our optional jewelry-style holder flawlessly combines safety and style!

We’re excited to exhibit at the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) #safety2023. Stop by booth 208 to connect with our team!

@ASSPSafety staff going above and beyond. Forgot my close toe shoes for setup and Julianne came to my rescue! #safety2023

That's a HUGE cheque! The best part? Its from women investing in women. @thefirehood is a Nationwide movement of women in tech supporting women in tech. At @unitingprairies @solusguard was fortunate enough to be selected. I love this community! #womenintech #womeninbusiness

@VancityReynolds @rodrigocortes Oh, I saw it. Scarred me for life. Thanks @VancityReynolds

Thanks Dave. I’m proud of that one. Buried works because of the ingenuity of cinematographer, Edu Grau. And the incredible @rodrigocortes directed the absolute hell out of this. Whole thing was shot in 16 days.