FishTank - How I Got Here

The Problem Nobody Talks About

At WebNixo, we had grown to over 20 salespeople. On paper, everything looked great—we were scaling, closing deals, and building momentum. But behind the scenes, there was a massive problem that kept haunting us.

Our salespeople had no idea why prospects were hanging up.

Every day, reps would make hundreds of calls. Some would convert, most wouldn't. But the real killer? Nobody could tell you why a call went south. Was it the opening? The pitch? The timing? We were flying blind, and it was costing us.

Building Prospector

I've always believed that if you can measure something, you can improve it. So I decided to build a solution myself.

Prospector started as a simple internal tool. The concept was straightforward: upload your cold calls, let AI analyze them, and get actionable feedback on what went wrong and what went right.

The first version was rough, but it worked. Sales reps could replay their calls, see exactly where they lost the prospect, and understand the patterns in their successful calls versus the failures.

The team loved it. For the first time, they had real data on their performance. New reps could learn from top performers. Struggling reps could identify their weaknesses. Our close rates started climbing.

"You Should Sell This"

Here's the thing about building tools that solve real problems—people notice.

Word spread. Other founders and sales leaders started asking about our "secret weapon." My team kept pushing me: "This isn't just useful for us. Every sales team has this problem. You should bring this to market."

They were right. The pain point was universal. Every company with a sales team faces the same challenge—scaling sales without losing quality, training reps effectively, and understanding what actually works on calls.

So I made the decision to spin Prospector out as its own product.

The Cold Reality of Go-To-Market

Here's what nobody tells you about bringing a product to market: it costs money. A lot of it.

I knew Prospector had potential, but I also knew the unit economics. This wasn't a billion-dollar, hockey-stick growth story that VCs dream about. It was a solid business that could be profitable, serve customers well, and grow sustainably.

But that's not what venture capital is designed for.

VCs need 100x returns. They need companies that can become unicorns. Prospector was a great product, but it wasn't "VC-backable" in the traditional sense. I wasn't going to raise a Series A for this.

Discovering Crowdfunding (And Its Broken Reality)

If not VC money, then what? Crowdfunding seemed like the obvious answer.

The pitch is compelling: let your future customers fund your product. It's democratic, it validates market demand, and it aligns incentives perfectly. In theory.

In practice, I discovered a system that's fundamentally broken.

The platforms take massive cuts. The marketing costs are astronomical. The "crowd" is often just a small group of early adopters, and reaching them requires the same expensive acquisition channels you'd use for any other product launch.

Worse, the entire system is designed for hardware products with sexy renders and prototype videos. Software? Services? Tools for sales teams? The platforms aren't built for that.

I spent months researching, planning campaigns, and talking to founders who had been through it. The more I learned, the more I realized this wasn't the path.

The Bigger Problem

But here's where it gets interesting.

As I dove deeper into the crowdfunding world, I started seeing a much bigger problem. It wasn't just me struggling—it was everyone.

Founders with great ideas couldn't get funded. Traditional platforms weren't working for modern businesses. The gap between having a product and getting it to market was massive and expensive.

And that's when it hit me.

The fundraising and "building in public" space is broken. Founders are isolated. The tools are outdated. The platforms extract value instead of creating it.

What if there was a better way?

Going All-In on FishTank

I made a decision that terrified me: put everything on pause.

Prospector was working. WebNixo was stable. I could have kept grinding, slowly building, playing it safe.

But I couldn't stop thinking about the bigger problem. The broken system I had discovered. The opportunity to fix it.

FishTank is my answer to everything I learned.

It's a platform built for founders who want to build in public. Who want to share their journey authentically. Who want to connect with supporters, customers, and fellow builders without the extractive middlemen.

It's what I wished existed when I was trying to bring Prospector to market.

What's Next

I'm building FishTank in the open. Every decision, every struggle, every win—I'm sharing it all.

Not because I have all the answers. But because I believe the best companies are built transparently, with community input, and with real accountability.

If you're a founder who's felt the pain I've described—the isolation, the broken funding systems, the struggle to connect with your audience—I'd love to hear from you.

This is just the beginning.

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This is the first post in my building-in-public journey with FishTank. Follow along as I share the real story of building a company from scratch.