i stopped chasing investors and took a job at a cooking-oil company.
the canon event nobody posts about. i quit the investor hunt, took a fullstack job at a used-cooking-oil company, and it was the best thing that happened to the agency.
major canon event update, since i write this stuff in public: no more investor. i took a job at a used cooking oil company instead. and it might be the best decision i've made for the agency.
let me explain, because on paper it reads like a step backward.
the investor hunt was quietly killing me
i spent months optimizing for the wrong audience. pitching, refining decks, chasing intros, performing "fundable founder." every hour in that loop was an hour not spent making something a customer would pay for. the hunt feels like progress because it's busy. it isn't.
raising money to find product-market fit is borrowing certainty you haven't earned yet.
what the job actually bought me
a fullstack role at a real company — building collection apps, routing systems, the unglamorous software that field teams use every day. it does three things for me:
- it pays for my focus. i don't need an investor's money to keep the lights on, so i don't need an investor's permission to build what i believe in.
- it's a live lab. i'm shipping production software to real users with real constraints every day. that sharpens me faster than any accelerator.
- it kills the desperation. desperate founders make desperate offers and take desperate clients. a salary lets me be patient — pick the right clients, build the right product.
the reframe
i used to think taking a job was admitting the dream was on hold. it's the opposite. the job is the runway. it lets me build the all-ai agency on my own terms, at my own pace, without selling a piece of the vision before it's worth anything.
most founders optimize for looking like a founder. i'd rather optimize for staying in the game long enough to win it. the cooking-oil company is how i stay in the game.
written by firaz fhansurie