60 No's Before a "Maybe": Chelsie Hall on Building Viral Moment

Welcome to Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders.  We explore the real journey of building and growing a company. Each episode, we go beyond the highlight reel to unpack the strategies, decisions, and hard lessons that shaped successful businesses, revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the growth. This week, Josh sits down with Chelsie Hall, founder and CEO of Viral Moment — the AI platform that watches social video at scale so brands like Coca-Cola, Warner Brothers, and Mattel can understand what's actually happening across culture in real time. Chelsie opens up about the spreadsheet of 100+ VC calls that built her fundraising playbook, the ego death of realizing what she wanted to build wasn't quite what the market wanted, and what it's been like building a company while becoming a mom to two littles. _ This episode was brought to you by Wisdom Partners. If you’re looking for more real conversations, practical resources, and honest founder stories, follow us for upcoming episodes of Founder Real Talk. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack newsletters to receive weekly articles, insights, and resources designed to support founders through every stage of the journey! Contact us: http://wisdompartners.llc/contact Subscribe to our Substack: http://blog.wisdompartners.llc Chapters (00:00) - Intro (02:01) - What Viral Moment actually does (07:45) - Why this resonates with Chelsie (10:39) - Wins in 2026 (12:03) - 100 VC calls and the ego death of mission vs. market (17:47) - A shifting AI market (21:11) - Evolving as a leader (25:02) - How Chelsie invests in herself (27:16) - Who ViralMoment works with (28:00) - Closing thoughts Links & Resources Chelsie LinkedIn:   / chelsie-hall   ViralMoment: https://viralmoment.com/ The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan & Benjamin Hardy: https://gapandgainbook.com/ Keywords founders, entrepreneurship, AI for marketing, social video AI, video analytics, consumer insights, brand intelligence, Viral Moment, Chelsie Hall, hate speech detection, disinformation, culture mapping, mom founders, fundraising rejection, 100 VC calls, mission-driven business, market fit, AI adoption curve, enterprise sales, Techstars, The Gap and the Gain, psychotically present, founder burnout, work-life integration