At one point, we were bridging monthly payroll from our personal accounts.
Month after month.
No salary. No profit. Just two guys funding a business they hoped would work.
We had conviction. We had customers. But the model wasn’t working fast enough. And it started to feel like we were doing everything right – without seeing the results.
It was exhausting. And it almost broke us.
The Story
In year two, Superpowers looked fine from the outside. We had happy clients. Growing referrals. A product people said they loved.
But behind the scenes, it was a slog.
Cash burn was real. Each month we were deciding how much more of our own money to put in. Our systems were still shaky. Churn was higher than it should’ve been. We were working
in the business more than we wanted – and burning out doing it. And the worst part? We couldn’t tell if we were being wise or delusional.
There’s a special kind of fog that sets in when you’ve beengrinding on something that should work, but it’s just notbreaking through. You start questioning everything:
“Am I the bottleneck?”
“Is this holding my cofounder back?”
“Is this idea just… not good enough?”
We kept saying, “one more month.” And then another. Until one day, we both had to face it: we couldn’t keep feeding this thing indefinitely. Something had to change – or we were out.
The Insight
There’s a difference between persistence and self-deception, but the line is only clear in hindsight.
Looking back, we were closer to the edge than we realized. We kept the lights on with personal cash, belief, and momentum…but we were weeks – maybe days – from walking away.
We didn’t force our way through the wall. We finally admitted we were hitting one – and changed course.
The no-BS Takeaway
Sometimes “keep going” isn’t the answer.
Sometimes it’s “stop, listen, and change something real –before the business eats you alive.”
