The thing nobody brings up about that night is that the investor who asked the question probably wasn't trying to dunk on him. That is just the standard first question you ask a founder, and the guy had no answer ready, which means he never once practiced saying his pitch out loud to someone who might push back. That is the real gap, not the free users. You can launch with zero dollars coming in and still have a clear answer for what you plan to charge and when, and just having that answer changes how the whole room looks at you. What gets me is he packed up after one hard question, because a room full of people asking tough stuff is free feedback you cannot buy, and he walked away from it. I would have told him to stay after and talk to the guy who asked, since that investor was the only person there taking him seriously enough to poke at it.

3 in one morning is rough. The penetrating oil thing works but you gotta give it real time, like overnight, not the 10 minutes most of us actually wait. Heat plus wax is the combo that finally got me through a stuck one last summer, torch the shell then touch a candle to the gap and let the wax wick in while it cools.