Matt WamplerCEO & Co-Founder, ClearCOGS · CEO & Co-Founder, ClearCOGS 🔪

His Dad's Retirement Account Kept the Company Alive

11 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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0:32

In this candid monologue, the founder (Speaker A) reflects on the five‑year period when he was trying to launch a restaurant‑partner platform at age 21. With no industry experience, résumé, or credibility, he spent countless hours knocking on doors and trying to convince restaurants to join his venture. The cash flow was constantly precarious; his father intermittently injected $1,000‑$2,000 from his retirement account to keep the business solvent and to cover the founder’s $500 monthly rent. The speaker emphasizes the grind, the lack of early traction, and the reliance on family financial support before finally reaching a point where the company could sustain itself.

It was tough. It was 5 years of just grinding it out, knocking on doors, convincing restaurants to team up with us. I was 21 years old at the time, so didn't have a lot of credibility, no resume, just out of college. So, didn't know anything about the restaurant industry. My father would just limp in $1,000 here, $2,000 here out of his retirement account to keep us afloat and allow me to pay my $500 a month rent. But eventually, eventually we got there. Like I said, it was tough. It was a long road.