18 year old Cofounder of a startup, I’ve been trying to raise a pre-seed round and the amount of people ignoring us and not giving us decisive answers has literally thrown me into a pit of depression.

Pre-Seed = Friends, Family, and business associates.

Put together an unsecured promissory convertible note and ask friends and family to lend you money in return for their money back and a little bit of equity in future if it goes anywhere.

How you gonna survive the hard times when you get bigger ?

What is depression -----lack of hope ( ? )

Depression is fine, normal, part of the process. But if you think you're onto something just don't fucking quit. Find a way, there's always one.

Get over it.

Step 1, build a business that generates revenue.

Step 1 is not raise money -unless you have a proven track record of creating businesses that generate revenue and you need the cash to short circuit the process.

Too many people think they need to raise money early on, when in reality it's becomes more of an opportunity to play with an idea using other people's money.

If your business has anything of value in the product/service it sells, then it should at a minimum be generating revenue - if it's minimal revenue, more money is not going to generate more revenue, I'd maybe recommend a reassessment of the business your creating.

Not trying to beat you up, just stating what I see. The alternative is you borrow money, lose it, and walk around with the guilt.