How this founder funded his startup with Just Grants.

I interviewed a startup founder with an interesting Idea.

Divine pitched 3D avatars for virtual clothes try-ons. Investors said no. Fashion shows rejected him. The idea was too complex, too unrealistic.

So he did what most founders are afraid to do: he killed his cool idea and asked himself one question, what problem am I actually solving?

Turns out, people don't need fancy 3D models. They just need to know if the damn shirt will fit.

That clarity changed everything. Here's what happened next, and three lessons you can steal for your startup.

Reply to this email if you want the full Interview.

Divine stripped Spequlo down to its core: algorithms that learn your body measurements and shopping habits to recommend the right size every time. No 3D avatars. No visual gimmicks. Just math that solves the sizing problem.

The result? His first paying client just came on board.

Your takeaway: Stop building what looks good in a pitch deck. Build what solves the problem fastest so you can get feedback. You can always add the fancy stuff later.

Here's the genius move: while everyone chases individual shoppers, Divine identified that retailers are the ones paying for the problem.

Free returns attract customers but destroy margins. Every returned item costs shipping both ways, restocking, and potential waste if the item can't be resold. Spequlo cuts those losses by getting the size right upfront.

Your takeaway: The person experiencing the problem isn't always the person willing to pay for the solution. Find who's losing money and sell to them.

Divine's goal this year? Twenty paying brands. Not a million users. Twenty brands.

He's not doing massive marketing yet. Instead, he's testing with people from his network—folks he met at fashion shows, connections who'll give honest feedback. Once he's worked out the kinks with people who know him, then he'll approach the big brands.

His reasoning? First impressions matter. If the product is buggy when a major brand tries it, game over.

Your takeaway: Your network is your beta testing ground. Get it right with people who'll forgive your mistakes before you go after customers who won't.

No VC money yet. Just $18k in grants from Carleton University's Nicol Internship program (lucky timing—the program closed right after he went through it).

For distribution, Divine's using an affiliate model with fashion influencers and models. If they introduce a brand that signs up, they get 20% of the first two months' revenue. These influencers know more brands than he does, so he's leveraging their networks to grow faster than he could alone.

Your takeaway: You don't need VC money to grow. You need creative distribution strategies that align incentives with people who have access to your customers.

Divine isn't obsessed with user counts. His north star metric? How many people know the name Spequlo.

Why? Because he's not just building a product—he's trying to become the sizing standard. That requires brand recognition, not just downloads.

Your takeaway: Pick the metric that actually matters for your long-term vision, not the vanity metric that looks good on a dashboard.

Divine recently went from solo founder (coding and running fashion shows) to a four-person team. He's incorporated, owns 100% equity for now, and understands something critical: you need a team to build a company, not just a side project.

Your takeaway: Stay lean until you need to scale, but recognize when you've hit the ceiling of what you can do alone.

Divine's advice is simple: "Move fast, learn from your mistakes, and enjoy the journey because it's going to be a long one."

But here's my challenge for you: What's the "impressive" feature in your product that you're building because it sounds cool, not because it solves the core problem? Kill it this week. Strip your solution down to its essence and test that instead.

The boring solution that works beats the impressive solution that doesn't.

Every. Single. Time.

Hit reply and tell me: what's one feature you're cutting this week?

P.S. Divine's closing remark was "THINK BIG AND GET STARTED." Not "think big and wait until it's perfect." Big difference.