The honest version was one sentence: “I have had a miserable week.”
I sent that to the founder of Rapchat after taking nine days to answer him. I had wanted to put together a polished proposal. Instead, I was selling two homes at the same time and getting buried by both of them.
The Poughkeepsie house had a buyer who first offered before seeing it in person. That sounded great until the inspection, basement, bathroom, permits, and certificate of occupancy all became active problems. The Portland condo was moving toward its own closing. Every message seemed to produce one more document or question.
Apply did not pause while I dealt with any of it. That same stretch had Flower Power concepts, label quotes, a product photography contract, and production notes for cards called Fruit Friends and FrankenFace. It was a lot of normal startup work packed around two very abnormal real estate transactions.
Rapchat was the thing I kept not getting back to.
I wanted to work with them because the product felt familiar. Music, beats, and people creating new art were how I had gotten into startup life in the first place. Even in a miserable week, that sounded fun.
So I stopped waiting for the polished version and sent a simple outline. I said that if we blocked time on the calendar, I could work with the team every week. I also said both homes should close in the next thirty days and I would get a massive amount of my time back :)
That was the optimistic version. Neither home had closed. The Poughkeepsie basement was still a mess. My proposal was late, and I was making a promise about time I did not have yet.
Four days later, I followed up again. I told him there was zero expectation that he answer quickly, especially since I had taken nine days myself. He wrote back that he thought it was a great fit and told me good luck with the closings.
The proposal was not polished. It was finally out of my inbox.