A couple things kept us steady:
• We focused on what we could control: the quality of our messaging, how fast we followed up, and how well we listened
• We didn’t take silence personally. Momentum requires some detachment

Q1 was about proving to ourselves that we could build from scratch.

Onto Q2

We kept showing up anyway.

We knew clarity would come from doing, not from waiting for permission.

We sent cold emails. Got on imperfect calls. Rewrote the narrative as we learned what resonated. Got ghosted more times than I can count. Followed up anyway.

We kept revisiting the same questions:

• Who exactly are we for?
• What specific problem are we solving?
• Why now?

Once we nailed these, the same outreach started hitting.

Lesson: Don’t underestimate how much clarity drives performance.

Before trying to scale your message, sharpen it.

It didn’t feel like a big breakthrough at the time, but it's what got the ball rolling.

Channel sales might be unsexy, but they scale faster than you’d expect.

We’re a long way from having it nailed. But 2025 Q1 taught us that value can come from unexpected places as long as you’re open to asking.

Building pipeline early is messy but it pays off if you keep refining as you go.

• Cold > Warm (sometimes)
Cold leads worked better when our message was sharp and personal. Effort earns attention.

• Momentum is silent.
You don’t feel it daily. But 30, 60, 90 days in, someone will reply. Once they do, the flywheel starts turning.

Some lessons that stuck with us:

• It’s a maze, not a funnel: Timelines will stretch and conversations will restart months later.

• Your network works only if you work it: Intros came from friends-of-friends and advisors once we asked.

• POV > Pitch: Instead of leading with “here’s what we do,” we started with “here’s what we’re seeing” and "what's your perspective?"

We didn’t crack some secret code — we just tried to be useful, respectful of people’s time, and willing to get better each week.

• Precision over spray-and-pray: Our best cold messages were short and showed we did homework. Don't be an LLM.

Here’s what actually worked for us:

• Shortlists over lead lists: We grouped targets by segment to learn what messaging worked best per vertical

Here's my conference booking link:
app.usemotion.com/meet/nikola...

Fair point. The Anora crew probably had a secret stash of H100s they couldn't disclose.

Seriously though. For those of you thinking you can sacrifice sleep - sure. Go ahead. Just know that good sleep is actually better for your career & business, but more importantly your overall happiness.

A sad day for my nostalgia playing MMOs over Skype.