He raised $1.5M, hit $400K ARR in 9 months— but had to Exit Early. Here’s the top 3 lessons he learned | Rob Palumbo, Co-Founder of Outpoint

Rob founded Outpoint in 2020 to help marketers optimize their ad spend. He was a growth marketer and his founder a data scientist. He had team-market fit, a solid thesis, and paying customers. But when the recession hit and ad spend dropped, growth ground to a halt. Nothing he did could revitalize growth. Ultimately, he decreased expenses and exited. He was able to return some cash to investors, find a home for his team and keep the product going. You tend to hear about what happens to the best 1% of startups. Here’s what tends to happen to the other 99%.KeywordsOutpoint, product market fit, startup journey, acquisition, growth marketing, venture capital, business strategy, lessons learned, entrepreneurship, market dynamicsWhy you should listenWhy a great team and thesis won’t always lead to successHow things out of your control can completely change your trajectoryWhy you should build something that works in both up and down marketsHow to find an acquisition when things aren’t going well.Timestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:01:13) The origin of Outpoint(00:14:49) Outpoint's Runway in 2022(00:19:21) Trying to sell your company(00:26:07) Lessons Learned(00:28:53) Almost Finding Product Market Fit(00:30:23) Planning a Startup vs starting one organically(00:34:30) Closing ThoughtsSend me a message to let me know what you think!