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Wise
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Wise
@trikcode
Co Founder @ship_together | DM for only partnership
127.0.0.1 Sumali Eylül 2020
5.8K Sinusundan66.7K Mga Tagasunod
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We've burned $75K of our money building this. 🔥
For a long time, it looked like a terrible idea.
Now we’re finally close to an inflection point.
My name is Kevin Qi, and this is the story of Festa:
In early 2024, my cofounder asked me what I wanted to do with the rest of my 20s.
I had a great career at Amazon, but deep down I knew I had always wanted to build something of my own.
I started coding as a kid just to build things, launched websites that got real users, and even tried starting a company at 17.
It failed. But that was the point.
So we started meeting weekly, throwing around ideas.
Factory Automation. ERP AI. Hardware.
Eventually we landed on something crazy:
What if AI could coordinate live events in real time?
I built the first version during nights and weekends.
We tested it at our own event in SF.
It worked. More importantly, people instantly “got it.”
That was enough conviction for me.
I quit Amazon.
Then reality hit:
• YC rejection
• failed marketing
• $2K in ads → 0 customers
• first wedding sale: $130
We even fumbled a $1K+ deal after messing up pricing.
But we kept going.
We rebuilt the product and shifted entirely to content + UGC.
Over the last 6 months:
• hundreds of videos tested
• figured out what actually converts
• acquisition cost now down to ~$7
• and finally approaching potential repeatable profitability
Which brings us to today.
We just launched the biggest redesign of Festa yet and for the first time, anyone can try it instantly as a guest to a "fake investor and startup conference event”.
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The hiring process in tech is completely broken.
- Round 1: Recruiter screens you for 15 minutes.
- Round 2: Technical phone screen.
- Round 3: Take-home project. "Should only take 4-6 hours." Takes 20.
- Round 4: On-site. 5 back-to-back interviews.
- Round 5: "Culture fit" chat with the founder.
- Round 6: Reference checks.
- Round 7: Waiting. Silence. Ghosted.
Meanwhile the guy who got hired knew someone on the team.
6 rounds of interviews defeated by one LinkedIn connection.
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