In this episode of Round Two: From Setback to Comeback, three-time founder and Starcycle CEO Jaclyn Siu sits down with Jason Patel, Founder & CEO of Open Forge AI and previously Founder of Transizion, to talk frankly about what happens when big dreams slam into hard reality—and how you build your way back.

About our guest

Jason Patel bootstrapped his first ed-tech startup, survived a quarter-million-dollar debt spiral, turned the company around to a strategic exit, and is now building Open Forge AI to help B2B marketing teams create content that wins in an AI-search world. His super-power? Relentless grit.

In this episode we cover

• The “performative founder” trap: why chasing vanity VC metrics nearly sank Jason’s first company
• $250K in credit-card debt & the turnaround playbook: how under-pricing for growth backfired and what finally reversed the slide
• “Building something people didn’t want”—the classic product-market-fit mistake and how to avoid it
• A five-step framework for stress-testing new ideas: market size, purchasing power, liquidity, and more before you commit to the next pivot
• Rebounding from a blown-out knee while in a top accelerator—and why physical setbacks mirror startup failures

About Round Two

Round Two, hosted by Jaclyn Siu, rewrites the narrative around startup setbacks, resilience, and reinvention. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and join the conversation.

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