I turned down a €1M startup deal.
And I’d do it again.
One decision, and I walked away from the deal every founder wants.
Let me show you exactly why I said no, what was really behind that offer, and why taking the money would have been the biggest mistake of my career.
I’m Oskar. I’ve built two startups and coached over 50 founders - and if you want to build a real million-dollar startup, this will save you thousands and years of mistakes.
And I’d do it again.
One decision, and I walked away from the deal every founder wants.
Let me show you exactly why I said no, what was really behind that offer, and why taking the money would have been the biggest mistake of my career.
I’m Oskar. I’ve built two startups and coached over 50 founders - and if you want to build a real million-dollar startup, this will save you thousands and years of mistakes.
The Offer I Got & Why It Looked Like a No-Brainer
So let me tell you about this deal.
I’m not going to name the startup for privacy reasons, but here’s what you need to know:
→ Two founders
→ Smart guys
→ This was during peak blockchain hype
Every second pitch had "decentralized" in it somewhere.
Their idea was a messaging app like WhatsApp, but stored on blockchain for more privacy - so no single company controls the data.
On paper, it sounds kinda cool, right?
They had ...
✅ Raised €12M at around a €40M valuation
✅ A fancy pitch deck
✅ Beautiful branding
✅ Some big-name investors
So the whole thing looked very "we’re the future of messaging".
And then they came to me.
They said:
"Hey Oskar, we’d love your help to build this. Product, strategy, positioning, all of it. We can’t pay you a salary right now … but we’ll give you equity".
So the offer was basically:
→ Huge valuation
→ €12M in the bank
→ Top-tier investors on board
→ Hot tech buzzwords like blockchain and AI
→ And I get equity if I help them build it
I’m not going to name the startup for privacy reasons, but here’s what you need to know:
→ Two founders
→ Smart guys
→ This was during peak blockchain hype
Every second pitch had "decentralized" in it somewhere.
Their idea was a messaging app like WhatsApp, but stored on blockchain for more privacy - so no single company controls the data.
On paper, it sounds kinda cool, right?
They had ...
✅ Raised €12M at around a €40M valuation
✅ A fancy pitch deck
✅ Beautiful branding
✅ Some big-name investors
So the whole thing looked very "we’re the future of messaging".
And then they came to me.
They said:
"Hey Oskar, we’d love your help to build this. Product, strategy, positioning, all of it. We can’t pay you a salary right now … but we’ll give you equity".
So the offer was basically:
→ Huge valuation
→ €12M in the bank
→ Top-tier investors on board
→ Hot tech buzzwords like blockchain and AI
→ And I get equity if I help them build it
👉 From the outside, this looked like a no-brainer.
If you tell this to most people, they would say:
"You’d be crazy to say no."
If you tell this to most people, they would say:
"You’d be crazy to say no."
Now at that time, I was building my own startup and money was tight.
So this wasn’t some comfortable, I’m-already-rich situation.
Saying yes would have been the safe choice.
So yeah - it was tempting.
But instead of jumping in right away, I did something different.
Something I wish every founder would do.
Pay attention here. Because this can save you years of hard work and thousands of dollars.
I ran it through my simple 6-step checklist to see if this startup could really make it.
The Red Flags & My 6-Step Checklist
I use this checklist with every startup I work with - and I used it for my two startups as well. It shows you if your business can actually make it.
So when this offer came in, I asked myself these six questions about their startup. Let me walk you through it, then I’ll show you how they scored.
1. What is the painful, urgent problem?
2. Who exactly is this for?
3. Is there a real market and real money behind this?
4. Do we have the right team to pull this off?
5. Do we have proof of demand, not just opinions?
6. Who are we competing with - and why would we win?
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Before I show you how this €40M startup scored on each of these - I've got something for you that will help you on your startup journey - my Startup Success Bundle.
The Startup Success Bundle is perfect for you if you are looking for a step-by-step, actionable system to build a successful startup. It's trusted by 50+ founders, so it's tried and tested, not theoretical stuff.
Click the button below and get it now!
Applying the Checklist to Their Startup
Question 1: What’s the painful, urgent problem you’re solving?
Their answer was basically: "People care about privacy. They don’t want big tech companies owning their data".
That sounds nice. But it’s not a painful, urgent problem.
If you look at how people actually behave, they still send private stuff over Instagram DMs and WhatsApp every single day.
✅ People say they care about privacy
❌ But they don’t act like it
So for me, that was already a red flag. The problem you solve has to be really painful, not just "interesting". Not just "cool". This is crucial.
I love this example:
Think about the Segway or Apple’s Vision Pro - both are cool ideas, but they didn’t solve a real problem.
So they flopped.
Question 2: One clear target audience?
Then I asked - "Who exactly is this for?"
They said: "Everyone who cares about privacy. Normal users … basically anyone".
Which means: No one.
When you build your startup, your target audience has to be super clear – not "everyone who cares about privacy", not "people who use messaging apps".
One very specific group. And the more specific you can be, the better.
So again, no clear audience - red flag.
Then I asked - "Who exactly is this for?"
They said: "Everyone who cares about privacy. Normal users … basically anyone".
Which means: No one.
When you build your startup, your target audience has to be super clear – not "everyone who cares about privacy", not "people who use messaging apps".
One very specific group. And the more specific you can be, the better.
So again, no clear audience - red flag.
Question 3: Is there a market and money?
"Okay, cool. But where’s the money? Who pays?"
The logic was this: "We’ll get a lot of users and we’ll figure out monetization later. Maybe premium features, maybe enterprise, maybe data storage, maybe tokens, whatever".
My gut dropped for a second when I heard "We’ll figure out monetization later".
❌ Because that’s not a strategy.
→ That’s hoping.
There was no clear business model. No proof that anyone would actually pay for this. If people like your idea but would never pay for it, you can cut it immediately.
So that’s strike three:
No real market or money.
"Okay, cool. But where’s the money? Who pays?"
The logic was this: "We’ll get a lot of users and we’ll figure out monetization later. Maybe premium features, maybe enterprise, maybe data storage, maybe tokens, whatever".
My gut dropped for a second when I heard "We’ll figure out monetization later".
❌ Because that’s not a strategy.
→ That’s hoping.
There was no clear business model. No proof that anyone would actually pay for this. If people like your idea but would never pay for it, you can cut it immediately.
So that’s strike three:
No real market or money.
Question 4: Right team?
Now, regarding the team: The founders were smart.
They had strong technical backgrounds.
A good network.
And they were good at fundraising, obviously.
But here’s the problem:
They had no real experience with B2C apps.
And they had no deep understanding of user behavior.
This is important - you need the right people on your team, not just "smart people". People with the skills and experience your specific product actually needs.
So let’s call this: Partly good, but risky.
Now, regarding the team: The founders were smart.
They had strong technical backgrounds.
A good network.
And they were good at fundraising, obviously.
But here’s the problem:
They had no real experience with B2C apps.
And they had no deep understanding of user behavior.
This is important - you need the right people on your team, not just "smart people". People with the skills and experience your specific product actually needs.
So let’s call this: Partly good, but risky.
Question 5: Proof of demand?
Is there any proof of demand? This one was pretty simple:
They had ...
❌ No users
❌ No MVP
❌ No pre-launch waitlist
What they did have was ...
✅ Investor excitement
✅ A good pitch deck
✅ Lots of conversations where people said "Yeah, that sounds cool"
But these are opinions, not demand.
And opinions don’t pay your bills.
If you build your startup because friends say "the idea is cool", you are in for a rough time.
So that’s another big fail.
Is there any proof of demand? This one was pretty simple:
They had ...
❌ No users
❌ No MVP
❌ No pre-launch waitlist
What they did have was ...
✅ Investor excitement
✅ A good pitch deck
✅ Lots of conversations where people said "Yeah, that sounds cool"
But these are opinions, not demand.
And opinions don’t pay your bills.
If you build your startup because friends say "the idea is cool", you are in for a rough time.
So that’s another big fail.
Question 6: Competition and why we’d win?
So far there were a lot of red flags, but it really fell apart when I asked about the competition.
They said: "Sure, there’s WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram … but they’re centralized. We’re different because we use blockchain and no one controls the data."
But if you look at it from the user’s perspective:
→ They already have messaging apps
→ Those apps are free, fast, and all their friends are there
→ Some of them, like Signal, are already very privacy-focused
And when I asked: "Okay, so why would someone leave WhatsApp and Signal and move their entire life to your app?" There was no solid answer. Just "better privacy" and "decentralized".
That’s not enough.
So here’s what we had:
❌ No painful, urgent problem.
❌ No clear target audience.
❌ No real money.
❌ Strong technical team, but incomplete.
❌ No proof of demand.
❌ Competing with giants, with no clear reason to win.
So with that checklist, saying "no" became surprisingly easy
So far there were a lot of red flags, but it really fell apart when I asked about the competition.
They said: "Sure, there’s WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram … but they’re centralized. We’re different because we use blockchain and no one controls the data."
But if you look at it from the user’s perspective:
→ They already have messaging apps
→ Those apps are free, fast, and all their friends are there
→ Some of them, like Signal, are already very privacy-focused
And when I asked: "Okay, so why would someone leave WhatsApp and Signal and move their entire life to your app?" There was no solid answer. Just "better privacy" and "decentralized".
That’s not enough.
So here’s what we had:
❌ No painful, urgent problem.
❌ No clear target audience.
❌ No real money.
❌ Strong technical team, but incomplete.
❌ No proof of demand.
❌ Competing with giants, with no clear reason to win.
So with that checklist, saying "no" became surprisingly easy
👉 Because now it wasn’t a decision based on fear of missing out or a shiny valuation.
It was just: "Does this make sense if I remove the hype?"
And the answer was: No, it doesn’t.
So I said no.
They went ahead without me, which is totally fine.
And you won’t believe what happened next.
Over the next two years:
→ They built a big team
→ They spent heavily on development and marketing
→ They kept pushing the narrative: Privacy and decentralization
→ They burned through €12M
And after all of that, they still had no real traction, no real revenue, and eventually, they went bankrupt.
They basically burned €12M to learn what this simple checklist could’ve told them in a week.
Your Takeaway
Now, here’s why I’m telling you this.
This is not about laughing at failed startups.
I’ve failed many times. You’ve probably failed at something as well.
That’s normal.
The real point is this:
When you build your startup - run this checklist.
If you can’t check these, you don’t have a startup. You have a story.
So run this checklist on your startup. If it passes, go all in.
If it fails, fix that before you spend another dollar.
What's next
Now you know what you need to build a strong foundation for your startup.
But hey - if you want to grow your startup even faster with a proven system, check out my Startup Success Bundle.
Trusted by 50+ startups, this system gives you a proven roadmap to help you build your startup faster and with less hassle - WITHOUT feeling overwhelmed, grinding 60+ hour weeks, giving up your weekends, or sacrificing family time.
Click the button below and get the Bundle right now!
But hey - if you want to grow your startup even faster with a proven system, check out my Startup Success Bundle.
Trusted by 50+ startups, this system gives you a proven roadmap to help you build your startup faster and with less hassle - WITHOUT feeling overwhelmed, grinding 60+ hour weeks, giving up your weekends, or sacrificing family time.
Click the button below and get the Bundle right now!