Before the “We Raised” Post

Dear reader,

I LOVE seeing other founders win.

Every time I see another “We raised $3M!!! 🎉” post on LinkedIn, the team celebrating, investors believing in them and a founder seeing years of hard work turning into something bigger, I genuinely get excited for them.

But you know what I’m always curious about?

What happened before that photo?

I want to know about the first investor conversation. The person who believed early. The feedback that completely changed their pitch. The idea that sounded genius but didn’t work at all. The moment they almost wanted to give up and the moment they suddenly thought… wait, this might actually work.

I want to know what they learned.

Because that’s the part we can all learn from.

And it made me think… why should I wait until after our raise to tell you mine?

So I’m going to do it a little differently… as always. 🙃

I’m officially starting BYOU’s first $50K fundraising sprint, and instead of waiting until I know how this story ends, I’m taking you with me while I’m actually doing it.

The conversations, the response rates, the mistakes, the investor questions, my crazy guerrilla marketing ideas, the strategies that completely fail and, hopefully, the ones that surprise me and actually work.

Because those are the Founder Letters I would want to read myself.

I decided I wanted to start fundraising when I saw something happening inside BYOU again. Clients started coming back. Experts were excited to be part of BYOU. People started submitting BYOU Help Requests, BYOU Partners started using our marketing features and volunteers started reaching out because they want to build BYOU Clubs on campuses in the US.

There was movement.

And I thought… okay.

Now we have something to prove.

But then came the part I absolutely hate.

Asking people for money.

Oh my goodness.

I HATE asking people for money. 😂

My mom always taught me that if you want something, you work for it. You don’t expect someone else to give it to you. You work hard, make your own money and figure it out yourself.

And I’m actually very grateful she taught me that… in a way. 😂

But wow… that belief makes fundraising uncomfortable.

Because asking someone for $10,000 almost feels like I’m asking someone to give ME $10,000.

And then my brain immediately goes: What am I giving this person back?

That’s the mindset I have to change.

Because I’m not raising this money for me.

I’m raising it for all those students we want to reach on campuses who may need support with their mental wellbeing. I’m raising it for the experts who have this God-given purpose to help other people, but who are struggling to find clients.

And I know exactly what that feels like because I was that expert.

When I started my own practice as a child therapist, I wanted to help families so badly, but not every family could afford therapy. I literally came up with the craziest business models to earn money somewhere else so I could still help some of those families.

So when I really think about it, this isn’t a new problem I’m trying to solve with BYOU.

I’ve been trying to solve this problem for years.

And maybe that’s the mindset shift I needed.

I’m not asking someone to give Danique $10K.

I’m asking someone to believe that we can turn their $10K into something that creates impact for many more people.

Still uncomfortable?

Yep.

But I do it anyway.

And then there is another side of fundraising that I’ve always found fascinating.

Whenever I see a founder announce another round, especially when they’re already at Series C, D, E or even F, my brain immediately wants to know everything behind it.

Why did you decide to raise again? What are you going to build with it? What did you learn from the previous round? How did the conversations with investors change as the company grew? What feedback changed the company? How did you think about ownership and control along the way? And do you actually enjoy fundraising, or is it simply part of building the company you want to build?

Those are the stories I find fascinating.

Not only the number that was raised, but everything the founder learned while getting there.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to share about our journey too.

So… what exactly do I want to do with $50K?

For me, these next 90 days aren’t about creating some fancy valuation on paper.

They’re about proof.

I want BYOU to become visible, and that means being where the people we want to help already are. TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, colleges, campuses and at work, whether that’s in an office or a public place. I want us to create content that actually uplifts people instead of giving them another reason to feel like their life isn’t good enough.

I want to build the community around BYOU, because I honestly believe community is becoming much more valuable than the number of followers underneath your Instagram name.

I want a strong Community & Partnership Manager helping us build those relationships. I want account managers building the B2B side of BYOU and getting companies involved in actually taking care of their people.

And then I want to look at the numbers.

Not only likes and views.

Real proof.

Can we build and run five BYOU Clubs on US campuses? Can we help more than 1,000 clients? Can we get our first five companies actively using BYOU to support their employees and create workplaces where people actually feel appreciated, healthy and excited to show up?

That’s what I want to know.

Because the stronger you are mentally, the stronger you become in almost everything else you do.

And I keep thinking about this…

We happily spend hundreds of dollars on a WHOOP to understand our sleep, recovery and physical performance.

Why is investing in our mental wellbeing still something we often wait to do until something is wrong?

I want to change that dynamic.

Let’s make mental wellbeing as normal and, honestly, as cool as wearing a WHOOP.

And why do I believe $50K can be enough to create meaningful proof?

Because we’ve done more with less before.

In the early days of BYOU, we generated more than $110K in GMV in less than eight months while working with less than $10K.

We didn’t have some huge VC-backed marketing machine behind us.

We had real people… not even AI. 🤖😂

We had a team that believed in what we were doing, we were creative as hell and we just kept moving.

So yes, I believe in what we can do with $50K.

Does that mean I’m 100% sure every strategy is going to work?

Absolutely not.

And that’s another thing I’m going to show you.

One of my first fundraising ideas is actually the complete opposite of what you would expect in this AI-everything world.

Everything is becoming automated. AI emails. AI LinkedIn outreach. AI personalization that everyone knows isn’t actually personal.

So naturally, my brain thought…

Let’s go extremely personal. 😂

Instead of sending hundreds of generic investor emails, I want to find the impact investors and philanthropists I genuinely want around BYOU and learn who they actually are. I want to understand why they invest, what they care about and what they’ve built.

And then I want to surprise some of them with something personal. A gift or an experience where they can immediately see: okay, she actually did her homework.

I don’t want just anyone’s money.

I want the right people around BYOU.

Is sending super-personal gifts to potential investors genius or completely ridiculous?

I genuinely don’t know yet.

That’s the fun part.

I’ll tell you what happens. 😂

And I also know myself well enough to know what happens if the first twenty people don’t respond.

Will I feel like shit?

Absolutely.

My brain will probably immediately go: See? Nobody wants this. This was a stupid idea. Just stop. It’s not going to work.

Those thoughts will be there.

And that’s also part of the story.

That’s why having real friends and people you trust around you is so important. People you can call and say, “Okay, I feel really shitty about this right now,” and who remind you why you started when your own brain temporarily forgets.

Because rejection doesn’t mean the mission is wrong.

It simply means this person said no.

And that’s okay.

I think about athletes a lot when it comes to this. We see the world champion holding the trophy, but what makes their story inspiring isn’t only the trophy. It’s everything they did before that moment. The competitions they lost, the mornings they trained when nobody was watching and the amount of times they got back up and tried again.

Why would building a company be any different?

Why would fundraising be any different?

There will be no’s. There will be ignored emails. And there will probably be ideas I’ll look back on in three months and think, Danique… what the hell were you thinking? 😂

But then there will also be yeses.

And I can’t wait to experience those too.

The first person who believes.

Then another.

And another.

That’s how a snowball starts.

So maybe 90 days from now, I’ll open this Founder Letter again and laugh.

Maybe some of my ideas completely failed. Maybe something I thought would never work becomes the thing that changes everything.

But I know what I want the BYOU dashboard to show.

Five BYOU Clubs running on campuses in the US. More than 1,000 people helped. Our first companies actively investing in the wellbeing of their teams. Experts getting connected with the people who actually need them.

And most importantly, proof that this model deserves to be scaled.

That’s when I want to have the next conversation.

Not:

“Can you believe in my idea?”

But:

“Look what we proved. Now imagine what we can do with $1.5M.”

That’s the round I want us to earn through execution, not assumption.

And maybe that’s also why I’m writing this Founder Letter before any of it has happened.

Because if I only write to you after everything works, I’m leaving out the most valuable part of the journey.

The learning.

The excitement.

The uncomfortable moments.

The ideas that don’t work.

The unexpected wins.

And yes… probably a few what the hell am I doing moments too. 😂

That’s entrepreneurship.

So I’m taking you with me.

I’ll share what works and what doesn’t. I’ll share the rejections, the numbers, the questions I get from investors, the crazy ideas I’m trying and the things I wish I had known before starting.

And hopefully, if you’re building something too, you’ll learn something from my journey.

Maybe you’ll try one of my ideas.

Maybe you’ll avoid one of my mistakes.

Or maybe you’ll simply read one of these letters on a difficult founder day and think: Okay… apparently I’m not the only one.

That alone would make sharing all of this worth it.

So this isn’t my “We raised!” Founder Letter.

Not yet. 😉

This is the beginning.

And I’m genuinely excited to see what happens next.

Let’s see what $50K can do.

See you in the next Founder Letter,

Danique Motzheim