We have hit bottom many times during this journey....when the struggle gets overwhelming I draw that line in the sand and have a showdown with hubby: "I'm giving you 30 days....and if nothing changes, you are getting a real job (meaning a paying job) and leaving this vision behind"....defeated, begrudgingly he agrees. This is usually a jumpstart to a mini-flurry of activity and when that 30 day mark is hit, we have agreed to keep it going.
We have found that what seems too good to be true usually is! We started our first rounds of funding with a family/friends round - so great....a built-in cheering squad all routing for the success and all reaffirming the vision. When our family/friends were all tapped, we had to move on to the outside investors.....so bleak! There is a reason why they are dubbed Vulture Capitalists - they have only one reason to be involved...MONEY. They want to get in and out and make some cash along the way. They don't care about the emotions, sweat equity, original vision - their only concern is "show me the money"! This group gets in and creates havoc - be prepared to be threatened, bullied, lied to, etc. if you don't do things exactly the way THEY want you to.
My advice: Try to avoid these weasels folks - such bad people! And here's a simple rule - if you are down to your last $10, feel like the company is about to fold, can't believe you've invested so much and are on the brink of failure and suddenly, an Angel Investor appears (magically at some event) and is all over the idea like flies on s_it...this is the one to avoid. If it sounds too good to be true, chances are it is. Our Angel Investor was great until he didn't get his way, then all H_ll broke loose and now it's as though hubby has sold his soul to the devil!
On a positive note, I discovered the art of Meditation - when I can no longer handle the stress of watching my beloved get raked over the coals by the devil, I plug into my favorite meditation guru, Pema Chodron, and learn to let go and find forgiveness for our enemies - NOT!!!!
