Why I optimize when I should be scaling: the rejection loop
just listed Lotiam on Crunchbase, set up Apollo.io, and sent 17 personalized cold emails to Amsterdam hostels.
but I'm going to be honest: I'm scared of rejection.
so instead of waiting for responses and pushing harder, I keep going back to the code. "this feature will be better," "this UX needs polish," "let me optimize this." it feels productive. it's not.
it's avoidance.
the real blockers aren't technical:
- LinkedIn account permanently banned
- TikTok shadowbanned with 0 organic views after months of daily videos
- Google Ads never worked (finally figured out the tracking issue)
- no clue how to actually distribute a location app at scale
so I pivoted to B2B instead of fighting those walls. that part was right.
but now I'm in reverse: I improve code instead of pushing through the silence while I wait for hostel replies. silence feels like failure. improvement feels like progress.
neither is true.
the hard part isn't building Laura, OnFoot and Triply. it's staying in the market conversation long enough to not give up.
so: sent the emails, set the system (Apollo follow-ups), and now I have to sit with the discomfort instead of disappearing into code.
if you've been here — scared, optimizing instead of shipping, isolated from channels that should work — I want to hear what pulled you out of it.
lotiam.dev
17 emails is not rejection, it is a sample too small to tell you anything, and it feels like rejection because you made replies the goal instead of sends. Move the metric to something you fully control: 20 logged outbound touches a day whether or not anyone answers, and let reply rate be an output rather than a scoreboard. For hostels specifically I would stop emailing and walk into ten of them in Amsterdam, because a front desk manager saying no to your face gives you more product information in five minutes than 100 ignored emails.
I know this loop. Code gives you instant proof that you did something; outreach makes you wait and feel judged. I now do one uncomfortable distribution task before opening the editor. It doesn’t make rejection fun, but it stops the product backlog becoming a hiding place.
The thing that pulled me out wasn't a better feature — it was shrinking the ask until silence stopped feeling like a verdict.
17 personalized emails is a start, not a sample. The rejection loop kicks in because the batch is small enough that each non-reply feels personal, so you go polish UX. I'd cap coding to a timer (90 minutes, then stop) and run the next 30 outreaches before touching the repo. Same hostel list is fine; change only the first line so it names their booking problem, not your app.
Also don't wait on email alone. Find 10 hostel managers already complaining about no-shows, walk-ins, or channel managers in Facebook groups or Reddit, and talk to them like research, not a demo. One conversation beats another deploy. The discomfort is the work; the code is the hiding place — you already named that. Sit in the follow-up, not the refactor.
The B2B pivot seems like the important move here.
Curious whether the first hostel responses are giving you signal on the market itself, or mainly on how to approach the buyer.