In the summer of 2023, my friend @benspector, who co-founded Anysphere (aka Cursor), reached out to one top venture funds in Silicon Valley, suggesting we meet. They turned down the intro, saying it wasn’t a category they were interested in. Ben insisted that he thought our team was special and that they had to meet us, but the partner still wouldn’t even take a meeting. I drove over to their office on Sandhill Road and left a note at the front desk saying: “I think you couldn’t be more wrong. This is the largest opportunity of the 21st century.” They ignored my note, and I never heard back. My cofounders were still enrolled and left torn as to whether they should drop out with no funding. We ended up taking the leap of faith and building the fastest-growing company in history. It was a valuable lesson in persistence and why not to listen to investors. The best startups are deeply contrarian.