LIVING THE DREAM

ON HIS 34TH birthday, Matt Munson was on the verge of what for many people is prime time on their career paths. But his startup had enough cash to survive just 87 more days, and every day felt heavier than the last.

A meteoric rise preceded his dramatic downward spiral. Two years earlier, in May 2012, Munson had launched Instacanvas, which let Instagram users sell their photos as canvas prints. In its first four days, the startup went from zero to 50,000 users, and within just a few months, it had amassed $1 million in revenue.

Munson’s timing seemed perfect. A month before he took Instacanvas out of beta, Facebook had acquired Instagram, and in less than a year the social media phenom would grow from 30 million to 100 million users. Munson, who had raised $1.7 million, was ready to tap into the ecosystem emerging around mobile photo sharing.

But rather than riding the wave that Instagram created, Instacanvas got lost in its considerable wake. Sales flatlined for 12 months.

CEO Munson and his cofounders frantically retooled and rebranded the company in October 2013. As Twenty20, the platform would enable users to license their mobile pics as stock photos.

The fate of Munson’s startup rested on his ability to sell this pivot to both investors and the new customers he’d need to find. Anxiety regularly shook him awake at night. He lay in bed thinking that saving the company, which now had 10 employees, was up to him alone. And what if Twenty20 collapsed? It would destroy him—though maybe he’d finally be able to sleep through the night.

At work, he hid this pressure. All that anyone else saw in the company’s Los Angeles office was a founder relentlessly fine-tuning his pitch deck and spiel for Twenty20’s vision. The clock was ticking: Soon, Munson would fly to