Have you ever done fundraising for a startup? To raise 1m - 2m dollars, you will on average talk to between 20 - 40 different investors during the seed round. At least half of these discussions will end with a "no". This is not a good feeling, because this "no" represents someone who has the ability to enable your company, your co-founders, your vision, your dreams, and even your employees to have a future. Being told "no" is incredibly difficult to hear in the early stages of a building a company.

My point is that being an entrepreneur, regardless of your role, is not always easy. Controlling your own destiny means you get the good and the bad; you're never shielded from the stuff that's hard to swallow. While I feel for this particular situation, I don't think other roles in a startup have it any easier.