Your well-funded startup is already dead

https://medium.com/@paul_a_smith/your-well-funded-startup-is-already-dead-fcd8976487c1

by thom • 11 years ago

10 4 11 years ago

thom2• 11 years ago

The author runs the UK's most successful pre-seed accelerator. I've wondered for a while if accelerators could get away with gathering far more structured (and invasive) analytics about their cohorts to measure things like this.

rdlecler1• 11 years ago

Datapoint: We came out of Batch 12 @ 500 Startups. I don't know anyone shifting gears to 9-5, and although I'm sure it happens, I haven't seen founders take on a big raise unless perhaps the round size was extraordinary.

I think scaling challenges and hiring talent is a far more common issue.

lsc• 11 years ago

Where does this guy find people to work for him? I'd only work for him as an absolute last resort; if I had no other options... but that doesn't describe anyone who is remotely qualified to run a funded startup.

This is the major reason I have turned down investment (even when it looked like I was worth it) - you get some asshole like this whining about how you aren't pretending to work enough, about how you aren't neglecting your family enough, about how your house isn't as tiny and cheap as it could be.

You know what? I have options. There are thousands of employers within easy bicycle distance, all who will pay me very well, many who will even cook me pretty good food. Most of them will give me stock options with a higher total expected return (even before accounting for the diminishing marginal value of money) than a funded startup.

That's the problem, from the perspective of people like OP, technical people have choices. Technical people who have the social skills to even have a chance at getting money have huge numbers of choices.

If I am going to live in a tiny house while working ridiculous hours (which, incidentally, seems to be what I'm doing lately) there's still no real reason for me to let some asshole come in and start complaining about how hard I'm working... fuck, I can support like three people off what I make as a contractor at one of the more comfortable area employers. Why do I need to deal with this guy?

thom2• 11 years ago

In his defence, he's mostly talking about founders, not employees. Wherever you choose to work, whatever the culture today, his point is that it's unlikely that the founders worked 9-5 at the beginning, or reverted to 9-5 after their seed round.

Your well-funded startup is already dead

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