A CEO wrote this brutal memo when he realized his billion-dollar startup was failing

This was an incredibly difficult stretch. Every time something popped up on my calendar I knew it was someone telling me they were leaving the company. These conversations were crushing. All I could think about was finding a way to fix things. We kicked off some really cool product experimentation but we were a Series C company trying to do seed st... See more

In today's world, startups face greater challenges than ever in being truthful. We live in a massive reality distortion bubble fueled by yield-chasing capital inflows into technology. To tell the truth, we must accept risks, unresolved problems, and mistakes. Most company failures are caused by teams, not individuals, making it even harder to tell ... See more

There are some phenomenal products in some of the companies that were overfunded and are haunted by past decisions. The valuations at which these companies raised capital set them on the wrong path - a path that fails to attract and reward critical talent, a path that incentivizes excess expenditure for growth at the expense of structuring a busine... See more

Sure, macroeconomic conditions change and the cost of capital underpins everything loss-making, high growth start-ups are valued on. It just feels a bit tough on founders like Teo, who now had to fire 44 people to fit a growth profile that, until two months ago, was likely the apple of her VC investor’s eye.

There is an all out war for search supremacy right now between two trillion dollar companies, with one having everything to win and the other everything to lose. In those circumstances a standard VC model of buying growth does not work even if you have a huge war chest, as you will be outspent no matter how big your investors are.

As a founder of a ... See more