founder’s journal #4: the end

18.7.2024 - D-day

i’m sitting in a weirdly-lit cafe in Saigon all by myself. it’s raining outside. my throat hurts every time i swallow. there’s an agonizing blister on my tongue.

publish

i just announced to our alumni community that MỞ will end 4 months from now.

the music playlist: FKJ - Just Piano

a stupid college grad with a dream

i remember moving to Saigon more than 10 months ago. i was 3 months fresh out of college, having zero clue how hard this would be - this being a creator/founder thing. back then, i wanted to be free, do my own things, at my own pace, with the people i love, for a cause that i believe in.

i didn’t care much about money, prestige, career prospects, or anything of that sort. i just thought that if i become a full-time founder, i’d get to do everything i’ve ever wanted.

and it did happen.

i got to build and fail, and try again, and get a little bit better. i got to try sales, and talk to people, and think of a million ways to growth hack, and fail a million times, and try again.

it was an exhilarating time. i got to be an entrepreneur.

to be an entrepreneur

to build and own something. to be 100% responsible for your success and failure. regardless of its sizes. it’s pretty f*cking amazing.

i’ve always been curious about it in college. i went for it right after graduation. and i’m stopping it in 4 months.

i’ve learned a million things, but the 2 most important things are:

1. i understood the mental cost of starting and owning a business

2. i learned how I want to integrate entrepreneurship into my life in the future

i have so much more to learn, and i’m excited about what the future holds.

i just turned 25. i’m soooo young. life is longgg.

as i’m writing this, i feel even more grateful for the past.

what we have built over the past 4 years is

anything BUT a failure.

we’ve built something that people were sad about when we announced its closure.

we’ve built a community that lasts much longer than a course.

we’ve shown a lot of people that online learning can be awesome.

over the past 4 years, we’ve worked with 24 instructors, and served more than 1000 students (500 just in the first 6 months of 2024).

there are also things that can never be quantified, like how much people love our experiences, and how tight and supportive and special our community is.

no number could tell that story.

it’s a story i’ve heard more than 100 times, from our students, in my first full-time year as an entrepreneur.

i KNOW that we’ve built something people love.

i owe this success to others

all of this would have never happened without the help of my incredible teammates (past and present) who tolerated my weaknesses and embraced my strengths, of our alumni who decided to come back and help us grow the community, and of our incredible students who decided to say yes to such a young team 🫶

my students have fueled me. my teammates have dragged me out of darkness many times. many founder peers and mentors have offered their hands to help me (or simply let me know that I’m not alone).

i’m not stopping because people have lost faith in me.

I’m stopping this because I no longer believe in myself in this mission.

i still believe that i am generally a capable person.

i believe that i can be a great employee. i believe i can make money and thrive in this world. i believe i can bounce back from this.

but i don’t believe that i can drive this business to success - to a scale where i can employ everyone full-time, where i won’t have doubts about other paths i can take or should take.

i’m not yet “founder capable”.

i owe this failure to myself

the reason we’re closing MỞ isn’t a problem of a failing business like we cannot sell what we build. people love what we build and are willing to pay for it. we’re growing in almost every important metric. we hit our KPIs for the first half of the year. it’s strange to close now from a number perspective.

we’re closing because how we are selling affects my mental health negatively. that’s the reality.

we’re closing because i’m not tough enough. sad but true.

not tough enough yet.

i know the next thing i build will have an entirely different set of problems, but me not being tough enough will never be one of them.

at the end of the day

whether anyone views this as a failure or not doesn’t matter.

because to me, this is learning - in the rawest and most memorable form - experience. building (and now stopping) MO has been an incredible learning journey.

and along the way, i’ve met, and hopefully, changed the life of hundreds (maybe thousands) of people.

i just want to say thank you! to everyone who’s been a supporter of MỞ, and of me over the past 4 years. I COULD HAVE NEVER done any of this without your help, love, and support!

I’m grateful for this journey. Now. Onto the last 4 months. And beyond!

You can support MO, me, and my team, by joining us for the last cohort ever here:

Hope to see you there!