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