I got my first internet customer after 2 years building

July 13th, 2018. Osaka, Japan. I’ve spent 2 years building 2 ambitious startups and made $0. My tiny place is infested with centipedes. I pay the $400 monthly rent with acting gigs and feed myself with cup ramens. Tired of building products nobody wants, I cold-email businesses selling a product I haven’t built yet. One of them replies. We jump on a call. I’m deeply uncomfortable, awkward, and sweaty, but I close the call. $300 lands in my PayPal the next hour. My first internet customer, and the first domino of a SaaS business that made close to $100k and paid the bills for 4 years. Good times.