S2EP2: What Would Jack Do? with Denielle Finkelstein & Thyme Sullivan

100 meetings. One summer. Not a single dollar raised.In this episode of The Capital Flex, I sit down with Denielle Finkelstein and Thyme Sullivan — co-founders of Unicorn, the company putting period product dispensers in the bathrooms of JP Morgan Chase, American Express, PepsiCo, Toyota, Blackstone and more. They knew how to build. They knew how to sell. What they didn't know was that the rooms they were walking into were never going to fund them — not because the business was weak, but because the people across the table didn't understand the customer and didn't care to.We talk about why staying away from venture gave them the freedom to walk away from 3,000 retail doors and pivot into a blue ocean nobody else had touched. The full capital stack beyond VC — angels, grants, revenue-based funding, SBA loans — and why most founders never look for it. And Jack Collins, a fictional CFO Thyme created to recover a debt ignored for over a year. Jack got a reply in 10 minutes. A payment plan. A handwritten thank-you note. Thyme and Denielle got silence.That is not a one-off. That is a pattern with a name.Key Takeaways:Why 100 pitch meetings with no capital raised was a signal about the room — not the businessThe full capital stack most founders don't know to look for: angels, grants, revenue-based funding and zero-interest loansHow staying away from venture gave them the autonomy to execute a pivot that would have been impossible with outside investorsWhy leading with social impact in a pitch is how you get told to become a nonprofit — and what to lead with insteadThe Jack Collins story: what it reveals about the bias still operating inside business relationshipsWhy revenue is capital — and how driving it changes the valuation conversation before you ever raise againMy Reflection & Challenge:Denielle and Thyme did not stumble into staying away from venture. They made a deliberate choice to protect their ability to move. That kind of optionality is not luck. It is a structural decision made early that pays off when everything changes.The Jack story is the part I keep thinking about. Every woman in this room has a version of it. Naming it out loud is where the playbook starts.This Week's Challenge:Where are you still bending toward what a room wants instead of building what you know is right?Who in your network has ignored your follow-up? What would Jack say?Links and Resources: https://www.everystall.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/unicorn-in-every-stall/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thyme-sullivan/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/denielle-finkelstein-5637baa/ https://www.instagram.com/everystall/If you enjoyed this conversation, follow The Capital Flex, leave a rating, and share this episode with a founder who needs it.And if you’re looking for a more candid space to talk fundraising, power, and building inside systems not designed for you, stay close. The conversation continues.Production and Administration work completed by Smart Podcast Solutions and Elevate Business Solutions.