in the span of 2 years

in the span of 2 years - forbes 30 under 30 - nasdaq milestone maker - $400K raised - 200 K-12 districts - impact in 35 states but here's how that took a toll on my mental health When Naina & I were first listed on Forbes, I thought I had made it. The press coverage, the resume boosting, the prestige - I was on a high However, Intertwined was running out of cash, so I had to pull a loan for the company to survive. Felt a bit of stress, but I was 19 and didn't understand anything. I had just made Forbes! 19 y/o Forbes 30 Under 30 Startup @ IU | Intertwined External Inbox Summarize this email me Feb 15, 2024 Hi Mark, I'm Kerry Ao, Founder/CEO of Inter... Mark Cuban Feb 15, 2024 to me No thank you. Good luck ! I knew I needed to fundraise and reached out to 100+ angel investors and venture capital firms. Almost everyone said no. I internalized the stress by pretending it didn't exist. (still love you mark) Somehow, someway, I figured it out. I secured investments from firms like Flywheel Fund, Roseway Capital, and Project 114! It felt like we had a LOT of cash, and I started hiring a team. Hey the add a class feature is glitchy after you create a class. So when I create a class then try to create another class, it pulls up the details of the last class (this is also on edge internet browser). You got to refresh the page to get it to create a class pop up. Just an FYI. In the span of 4 weeks, my engineers had to QUICKLY redo the entire UI/UX for our enterprise pilots. Bugs and glitches everywhere that needed to be fixed or else we'd lose sales opportunities. I internalized the stress by pretending it didn't exist. Somehow, someway, I figured it out. Yay! I started really focusing on our sales pipeline ahead of the 2025 spring sales season (peak sales opportunities for edtech companies) Financial Literacy for the Future Intertwined is an AI-powered financial literacy platform for K-12 schools, higher education, and businesses. SHOCKING STATISTICS.. 84% of K-12 Students Are NOT financially literate about their financial futures. Reimagining how the future learns financial literacy Intertwined's AI-powered platform leverages the latest AI technology to personalize and gamify learning experiences. our solutions Electrify your educational But in spring 2025, Trump cut billions of federal public education funding. Schools got (rightfully) scared and didn't want to spend new money on new programs... like Intertwined. My entire sales pipeline collapsed overnight. March 2025: I was in Costa Rica for a school trip, I would stay up until 2-3am daily (my roommate can testify) emailing prospects, desperately trying to save my hard-worked pipeline from completely disappearing. By the time April came, and I realized what had happened, I couldn't internalize that stress and anxiety anymore I called my biggest investor and supporter literally in tears. I didn't want to disappoint him and our other believers, and I just didn't know what to do. He did his best to reassure me by telling me that all of his other edtech investments were facing very similar problems with little to no sales opportunities. My board understood too (I appreciate them so much) They told me to distract myself, so I did the one thing I could think of... yes 'cer!! @shanii.i Hangout with family and my closest friend (my cousin) 🙏 But I was still incredibly stressed. I wasn't getting much sleep, and my relationship with food started to suffer. I just really wasn't eating anything There were some other things that factored into this, but Intertwined's struggles played a major reason Forming Balanced Meals & Snacks Protein Vegetables & Fruit Starchy Carbohydrates Even my codefunder was rightfully calling me out HHAHA Delivered EAT SOME ACTUAL FOOD OMG how tf did u just eat peanut butter i'm praying for ur sanity 'cause that's batshit everything happens for a reason reminding myself that i'm a good person kerry ao 1h 53m I'd oftentimes discover I had no motivation to get anything done... just sitting there listening to music. I just skipped a few classes, and my investors told me to take some time off to refocus Eventually, I started seeing a therapist, who in turn, recommended a nutritionist. I went through 4 months of therapy (ended July 2025) to better handle my stress and anxiety, and it helped dramatically I eventually began seeing a life coach at the London Business School for a more specified executive training (handling all my different roles and responsibilities) in September 2025. This just recently ended in December 🥳 12:50 AM I'm incredibly thankful for my support group, friends, and family... who would literally drag me out at midnight to make sure I ate for the day and that I was okay Eventually, I was able to raise a bridge round of funding - allowing us to invest in sales, marketing, and product development got a new big investor, inkwell coffee, downtown bloom walks... we're so back 🤑 Ran a sales promotion, called "Stronger Together" emphasizing to school districts that we stood with them. And it worked. Amazingly. 3 NEW DISTRICTS BECOMING CLIENTS RAAHHHHHHH SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco County We grew from 14 enterprise pilots to 170 K-12 school districts by October 2025. IT WORKED!!! - 93% of teachers believe Intertwined is realistic & engaging - 9/10 teachers recommend Intertwined to a colleague - 4/5 teachers saved time using Intertwined For my work alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (quality, inclusive education), Nasdaq recognized me as a Milestone Maker, featuring Intertwined on their Times Square billboard 🤩 Just a few months later, today, we're at 200 K-12 school districts... and currently negotiating some of the largest contracts I've ever seen I'm still stressed by a wide wide margin as this is the middle of our spring sales season and these potential deals present incredible opportunities, but I've learned how to better manage that stress 😇