To try and help, here are some types of hard work that probably won’t be the deciding factor in a successful startup:

Long hours, sleeping at work, giving it 100%.

Here are somethings that do help:

Challenging your biases, admitting you were wrong, being vulnerable and accepting good feedback, growing as a person and a professional.

Some people find the 2nd list MUCH harder. Try not to be the person that lies to themselves and grinds away instead of learning from mistakes.

Having seen this situation personally, a warning: those 1000 companies will convert horribly.

(Caveat: anecdotal / YMMV)

No-one likes a call from their investor telling them to use a new product. Many people take the calls because they are afraid to say no.

This leads to weeks and months of painful, drawn out sales where the companies are trying to avoid doing anything but refuse to say “no”. They will give a million reasons why your product is not for them, distracting you from your real focus with fake feature requests. They will still say no at the end. Your VC will then look at your badly, because these companies come up with a million valid reasons to not use you.

These are NOT potential customers, they are hostages.