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👩‍💼 Jess Ma on My First Million

The founder who built an $11M startup, blew it up, moved to Bali, and somehow came out richer (and calmer).

You know those people who live five lifetimes before they turn 30? Yeah, that’s Jess Ma. She built Indinero (an accounting SaaS), hit $11M in revenue, watched it nosedive, raised $7M after the crash (with no pitch deck, mind you), and now she’s building a Bitcoin-based divorce startup while biohacking her way to living past 120.

And she told Shaan Puri everything on My First Million.

If you’ve ever burned out, bounced back, or brainstormed a weird-but-genius business idea in a sauna... this episode is for you.

🎙️ EPISODE SNAPSHOT

What happens when a teenage founder crashes her 8-figure startup, moves to Bali, and starts a Bitcoin divorce company? Apparently… magic. This episode is a wild ride through failure, reinvention, and building businesses that actually light you up.

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

• 🧠 You don’t need a pitch deck to raise millions
  Jess raised $7M post-failure using nothing but a Notion memo and a deeply personal reflection on what went wrong. No flashy pitch deck, no MVP, just raw conviction and trust built from her prior founder journey. It’s a reminder that great storytelling and founder-market fit can outweigh traditional fundraising formats — especially with the right network.

• 🔥 Your weirdest startup ideas might be your biggest moat
  Her current startup is a Bitcoin escrow service for people going through messy divorces — something that sounds absurd at first but solves a real, painful problem in a high-net-worth niche. Divorce settlements can drag on for years and involve heavy legal fees, especially for crypto-savvy couples. Jess's approach automates the painful process using smart contracts and neutral third-party custody, reducing both time and emotional cost.

• 🌴 Environment is a growth hack no one talks about enough
  Jess credits her move to Bali as a turning point in her entrepreneurial clarity. The slower pace, reduced noise, and stronger community of reflective thinkers gave her the mental white space to stop reacting and start ideating again. She emphasizes that sometimes, your burnout isn’t from the work itself — it’s from the context you’re doing it in.

• 🧬 Founders should treat their bodies like startups
  Jess is obsessed with longevity. She tracks epigenetic age, hormone levels, micronutrients — the full Bryan Johnson starter pack. Her thinking? The longer and sharper she stays alive, the more companies she can build, and the better decisions she can make. It’s founder ROI in its purest biological form.

• 🛠️ Failure is only final if you stop iterating
  After scaling Indinero to $11M in ARR, Jess hit a wall: growth plateaued, morale dropped, and internal chaos bubbled up. But instead of hiding the story, she leaned into it, reflecting publicly and using those learnings to attract even better investors for her next chapter. Her experience shows that vulnerability and intellectual honesty can actually be your most valuable startup assets.

🛠️ TOOLS, SITES, RESOURCES

• Notion – Jess used Notion to write investor updates, reflections, and a pitch memo that helped her raise $7M without a deck. It became her “living doc” to show clarity of thought, a transparent roadmap, and founder introspection. It's a lightweight yet high-trust format that more founders should consider over traditional slide decks.

• Bitcoin Escrow Infrastructure – Her new divorce-focused startup leverages Bitcoin escrow smart contracts with custom logic to facilitate asset division without the need for constant legal intervention. It’s ideal for high-conflict couples who both own crypto and want more control, transparency, and speed in settlements.

• Bali as a Mental Operating System – Jess specifically points to the Bali founder community — full of wellness-minded operators and deep thinkers — as instrumental in her creative recovery. Think of it as a mental OS upgrade: fewer meetings, more flow states, and radically better ideation. It's not vacation—it’s strategic relocation.

💼 BUSINESS IDEAS & OPPORTUNITIES

• Bitcoin Divorce Tech – Build a SaaS layer on top of crypto smart contracts for managing post-divorce asset custody. This solves a real pain point for high-net-worth individuals with significant crypto holdings, especially in adversarial or international situations where legal enforcement is tricky.

• Longevity Concierge for Founders – Think "OnDeck for Biohacking." Offer curated blood work, nootropic stacks, health tracking, and weekly calls with functional medicine experts. Jess believes founders are willing to spend tens of thousands a year to feel mentally sharper and avoid burnout — and this is an emerging vertical with wide margins.

• Founder Retreat Circles – Inspired by her Bali network, Jess hints at the demand for mini-retreats where smart, wealthy, and burnt-out founders can decompress, reconnect with their mission, and brainstorm in peace. Combine guided journaling, curated dinners, and zero screen time for maximum transformation (and subscription-worthy ROI).

• Digital Prenup Platform – Expanding on the divorce concept, a tool that facilitates digital prenups for couples (or even cofounders) could create transparency and trust upfront. Plug into wallets, agree on conditional splits, and automate the enforcement. This is increasingly relevant as asset ownership gets more decentralized and legal systems struggle to keep up.

🧠 LIFE HACKS

• 📉 “Work less, win more” isn’t a meme — it’s her lifestyle now
  Post-Indinero burnout forced Jess to rethink everything. She found that stepping away from hyper-productivity gave her the clarity to ideate more strategically and energetically. Slowing down gave her permission to build things that felt energizing, not just urgent.

• 🧘‍♀️ You are not your startup’s valuation
  Jess talked about detaching her self-worth from her company’s revenue, valuation, and growth rate. That mindset shift helped her process Indinero’s decline and opened up space to imagine what her life could look like beyond founder success theater.

• 🥗 “Your body is the highest-leverage tool”
  Her entire day is structured around inputs that support cognition: circadian rhythm syncing, microdosing, meditation, biofeedback, and fasting. She believes the startup world will increasingly be led by people who treat mental clarity like a product feature.

💸 BEST FAST-MONEY IDEAS

1. Bitcoin Divorce Escrow SaaS
   This niche is underserved, emotional, and expensive — three green flags for disruption. Most legal systems are lagging behind crypto, and HNW couples are desperate for low-drama, high-tech solutions. Build a web app with wallet integrations and charge a premium for speed and security.

2. Biohacking-as-a-Service for Execs
   Busy operators don’t have time to analyze blood panels or chase after supplements. Build a white-glove service that handles it all — testing, consulting, tracking, and habit-stacking. Target YC alums, angel investors, and Type-A professionals with $10K+ to burn and no time to research.

3. Remote-Only Founder Circles in Retreat Settings
   Design 3-day or 7-day immersive retreats with no laptops, deep journaling, and high-level masterminds. Monetize via application-only cohorts and annual subscriptions. Jess’s personal circle already does this — you just need to scale the model.

📊 STATS & TRENDS WORTH KNOWING

• 💸 $7M raised via memo, not a deck – Jess is part of a growing trend where founders raise based on personal narrative, operator track record, and intellectual honesty, not just slick slides.

• 🧾 $11M in ARR to near-zero at Indinero – A stark reminder that growth masks a lot of issues. For Jess, it was hiring sprees, cultural bloat, and misaligned incentives. The lesson: grow slow if it means staying sane.

• 🧬 Longevity market is growing at 8–10% CAGR – With rising interest in wearable tech, DNA testing, and functional medicine, the bio-optimization space is becoming VC catnip. Jess's biohacking obsession is right on trend.

🔑 ACTIONABLE STRATEGIES

✅ Raise Money Without a Deck

1. Write a Notion doc outlining your idea, traction, and personal founder journey.

2. Include honest lessons from past failures to build trust.

3. Send to pre-warmed investors who know your track record — clarity + reputation = checks.

💔 Build DivorceTech for Crypto Wealth

1. Identify high-asset crypto couples (look for dual-entrepreneur households).

2. Create a Bitcoin smart contract framework that automates fund division based on legal mediation triggers.

3. Charge a flat fee or a % of settlement held in escrow. Partner with mediators and legal firms to onboard.

🧘 Build Founder Retreat Circles

1. Design a 3–5 day experience around journaling, breathwork, idea sprints, and digital detox.

2. Recruit successful, values-aligned founders as anchor members.

3. Create a subscription model with quarterly retreats + ongoing digital community.

📝 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Jess Ma’s journey is basically the founder version of “eat, pray, pivot.” From scaling Indinero to $11M and then watching it collapse, to raising millions again and launching a Bitcoin divorce startup, her story is a masterclass in reinvention. Her secret weapons? Emotional honesty, radical simplicity, and a relentless focus on health as leverage. Whether you’re raising capital, starting from scratch, or hitting the “WTF am I doing?” wall, this episode proves one thing: Your best business ideas come when you stop trying to impress and start building from alignment.

Want the Jess Ma cheat code?
✍️ Write the memo.
🧘 Move to Bali.
💡 Build the weird thing.

Which part are you stealing first? 😏

Watch the full episode here: