⚡️ ⚡️ Founder Diaries Vol 1 Ch 2: Yehong Zhu, Founder of Zette - From 180 Rejections to Raising $1.7M
We celebrate the unfiltered BTS stories of today’s founders - from their highest highs to the lowest lows and how they powered through it all… or didn’t.
😊 Welcome to Volume 1 Chapter 2 of Founder Diaries. Now, Why Founder Diaries?
In an era where founders’ lives are glamorized and their stories are romanticized narratives of seemingly endless success, the behind-the-scenes reality of the highs and lows of being a founder often don’t come to light.
Alongside the startup with a high valuation is the string of risky decisions, maxed-out credit cards, and grueling late-night chats.
Alongside each polished story, there are real challenges, unsung heroes, and unique highs & lows that make every second of the founder's journey worth it. Or maybe not? We will let you decide.
These are the true, unfiltered short stories behind the founders of today. Enjoy :)
👋 Introducing Yehong Zhu, Founder of Zette: From 180 Rejections to Raising $1.7M
After bootstrapping Zette, Yehong endured hundreds of no’s before closing her $1.7M pre-seed round.
Zette allows you to access premium digital news behind article paywalls, with a single subscription. Unlock the news that sparks your curiosity.
Starting Zette During Covid
Starting Zette felt like leaping into the unknown. I had left a safe and lucrative job as a product manager at Twitter only to launch a company in July 2020 right when the COVID pandemic hit.
The early days of COVID wiped away that classic “honeymoon phase” that some founders get to enjoy. Instead of enthusiasm, my energy was fueled by fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of the chaos crashing all around me.
My mind kept circling back to the media industry and the challenges people faced accessing information, especially during the pandemic. As news consumption was skyrocketing, fake news was spreading as paywalls blocked access to potentially life-saving information.
Our mission to democratize access to real news felt mission-critical.
The view from my tiny apartment in SF where the magic happened, circa 2020.
In the midst of chaos, I launched Zette, the “Spotify for News”—a platform that could unlock thousands of article paywalls with a single subscription.
To fund this dream, I had about a year of savings from my previous jobs. It was enough to hire a small team and build an initial product. But I knew the clock was ticking on my personal runway—very quickly.
So even amongst pandemic uncertainty, we started fundraising.
Many VC funds had stopped cutting checks, so I had no idea if we'd even be able to raise the round we needed to keep Zette going.
Faced with my own inexperience speaking to VCs and the brutal reality of raising money during covid, we went through hundreds of rejections. I started covering my walls with sticky notes scribbled with audacious goals to get 10, 20 or even 100 rejections a day. My focus shifted to progress and perseverance—on the inputs that would lead to the outputs I wanted.
Between our 170th – 180th “no,” we finally received our lead term sheet.
After everything we had endured, I cried tears of relief on the call. We ended up closing on a $1.7M pre-seed—oversubscribed. But looking back, this was only the beginning of our journey.
Letting go of perfectionism and constantly executing on the rapid pace of expected output was extremely challenging for me. As a lifelong overachiever and perfectionist, I had always tied my self-worth to flawless execution.
But startups move fast—and I had to transform myself just as quickly. I was now building a startup to compete in the relentless markets of 2021, struggling to embrace imperfection and learning through mistakes when it went against everything I’d previously known.
Through the process, I realized that my startup wasn’t the only thing I had to scale—I also had to scale myself.
I wish I’d realized earlier that entrepreneurship was like a lifelong climb up Mt. Everest, not a sprint to race to the top. Founders who scale recklessly with only the end goal in mind often burn out or make dangerous decisions that impede their ability to reach their destination.
After enduring obstacle after obstacle during the first few years at Zette, I learned the hard way that just taking PTO was far from enough to recover from burnout and trauma.
I invested in therapy, executive coaching, fitness, healthy routines, and so much more. It was expensive and time-consuming. But I knew this comprehensive approach was the only way to rebuild myself back emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Now that I’m on the other side of some pretty steep learning curves, I’m grateful for the lessons it taught me. I emerged stronger—empowered with the tools to heal and build back better that will serve me for the rest of my life.
A year after raising our first round, we faced crunch time, with pressure mounting to perform.
This was the critical moment that our team put our foot on the gas. A few key content licensing partnership deals came through, which meant that we’d proven out early traction for the supply side of our market.
But early fears quickly gave way to new pressures—could we replicate the deals we had landed? Could we grow them 5x or 10x? The rollercoaster ride continued.
I found myself obsessed with nerve-wracking startup metrics—cash burn, runway, deals in the pipeline. After many sleepless nights stressing about the state of the company, I pushed myself to reframe and focus on the positive upswing momentum, and on everything we’ve done to date.
Building a company from the ground up is one of the hardest things anyone can ever do.
But remembering how far we’ve already climbed keeps me going.
I know there will be many more rejections and obstacles ahead. But I’m inspired every day by the view we have from where we stand today. My amazing team gives me hope as we all scale new heights together.
No matter the twists and turns, I know now that my purpose is tied to the journey. Our mission remains strong even when the path gets hard. The tech and business landscapes will keep rapidly changing, but our vision will stay true—and I’m looking forward to enjoying the ride ahead!
Learn more about Yehong and Zette:
If you know someone with a unique founder story who would like to share their BTS journey of founder life - the highest highs and the lowest lows - please feel free to refer them at diariesfounder@gmail.com.
— Michelle Kwok & Christine Lu Hong (The Founder Diaries Team)