Once upon a time, Baby Deer was absolutely not nervous.
She was… prepared.
Laptop charged ✔️
Deck polished ✔️
Demo rehearsed 27 times ✔️
Backup hotspot ✔️
Backup backup hotspot ✔️
She walked into the demo room early.
Too early.
The chairs were empty.
The projector hummed.
The little green light blinked like it was judging her.
She set up anyway.
Clicked through the slides.
Graph up.
Market size up.
Architecture diagram up.
She practiced the joke.
No laugh.
Of course no laugh.
There was no one there.
She checked Slack.
Nothing.
Checked email.
Nothing.
Checked calendar.
Still… nothing.
For a moment she wondered if she had the
Wrong room.
Wrong day.
Wrong building.
Wrong life.
She sat down.
The silence got loud.
Tick of the clock.
Buzz of the AC.
Her own heartbeat doing founder math.
Because founders know this feeling:
What if no one shows up?
What if I built something no one cares about?
What if I am the silent room?
She stared at the blank chairs like they owed her traction.
“…goddammit.”
She opened the deck again.
Slide 1: The Problem
She looked at the words.
They were real.
They mattered.
They were the reason he started.
She remembered the first customer call. The late-night deploy. The tiny win that made her feel ten feet tall.
And suddenly, the room didn’t feel empty. It felt like… waiting.
The door opened.
One person came in.
Then another.
Then three more with coffee and apologies.
“Sorry, traffic.”
“Sorry, last call ran over.”
“Sorry, elevator was broken.”
Baby Deer nodded like she wasn’t holding her breath the whole time.
She started the demo.
Her voice shook a little on slide two.
Steadier on slide four.
Confident by slide seven.
Because once you start telling the truth about why you built something, the silence breaks.
Afterward, someone stayed behind.
Quietly.
They said,
“This… this is exactly what we need.”
Baby Deer blinked.
“…goddammit.”
Because sometimes the silent room isn’t rejection.
It’s just the moment right before someone sees you.
And sometimes the hardest part of building is believing someone will open the door.
🦌✨
Love you 🫶
With heart,
— Rhea Lynn Mascarinas
Cybersecurity GTM Researcher | QuietConversion
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