Very interesting read PJ. Congrats to you and to VSS for setting this up. I am sure this will be a path breaking journey in many ways.
The only thing that I found strange, was that you were unable to convince people to join you. Weren’t you working with some good recruiter/agency who could play the role of convincing the candidates ?
Perhaps that’s a learning for other start-ups as well, you could identify some small to mid-sized agency to help you pitch to the candidates of your interest. Agencies can play a crucial role in building up your teams. Just identify someone that you can resonate with and where the owner can get personally involved in the process, and you have a much higher chances of being able to get out and get the right people