Hah, your mistake is thinking that startup is about building tech. Maybe years ago. Startup is about building a startup, your goal is to do what you need to do to get funded and that is often not building an amazing tech. The fancier your tech the more you come across like a hardcore nerd with no business acumen. This is what the capital owners often think when they come across your type. If you were so smart, why would you waste all that effort building it instead of raising money or getting other people to build it? If your tech is so great, why don't you have bazillion users? Hope you begin to see what you are doing wrong, stop building and optimize for raising money, not users, not more features.