I am Improving Traffic Safety; what are you doing?

I took a deep breath and started.

Are you ready to be presented with the most incredible driver’s assistant app? I will introduce you to a game-changer product that will help drivers improve their skills, be safer, and enhance overall traffic around them. The idea integrates geolocation technology with maps, watch haptic, satellite info, car navigation systems, and much more. The concept involves an extra sensitive sensor that will…

This time around, that was the furthest I got with my pitch before being interrupted. I was trying to get an investor for my product, and they didn’t even bother to hear my pitch. It was my third meeting already, and the results were pretty much the same. Even though I studied all of Steve Jobs’ presentations and knew what people wanted to hear and how I had to deliver it, my strategy didn’t work with these guys. Maybe because I was a one-woman enterprise trying to tell drivers how to improve their driving skills, perhaps it was because I didn’t wear a deep v-neck and a skirt, which, unfortunately, in this day and age still does the job of getting men’s attention. Brainpower is many times still overlooked.

I have no idea why they were not interested since they shut me down, saying, “this will never work,” but never gave me details. The fact that they didn’t humiliate the concept gave me hope that it was doable. It even crossed my mind they might have something similar in the works already. So I thought, oh well, it is just another door closing, but I can do this. And I didn’t stop believing in the potential of my project. I decided then and there that three was the magic number. After three meetings and three resounding nos, it was time to bootstrap my idea. For the past five months, I was putting my energy into it after work and on weekends anyway, so why not collect one more paycheck and go off-grid for a while to develop the whole idea?

So that’s what I did. I said goodbye to my big tech job and dove deep into my project. For five months straight, day in, day out, I worked on the infrastructure needed to get my idea to work. It is worth saying that before these five months, I was already working on the idea for three months while still working full time. After many months filled with long nights and even longer days, blood, sweat, and tears, I was proud of my work. I still had a few things to tweak, but my prototype was up and running. I got some friends and family on board to help test out the app…