Are You Prepared to Pay the Real Price of Startup Success?...

Are You Prepared to Pay the Real Price of Startup Success?

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Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

For the past decade, our idolatry of startups and innovation has meant the focus has been: What can we disrupt? How fast can we grow? How big can we get? How much can we raise?

Founders are taught to possess enough faith that they can build something very big very fast. This creates a pressure cooker of responsibility that distorts reality to the... See more

Sari Azout • Can I Ramble for a Sec?

Because big businesses aren’t built on gimmicks. You can blitz your way through Sand Hill Road and spike up the App Store charts on gimmicks, but you can’t actually use them to replace Gmail, or Salesforce, or Instagram, or Instagram, or Instagram, or Instagram. Even seemingly instant successes can’t become lasting companies without putting in the... See more

Benn Stancil • Why Are We Surprised That Startups Are So Freaking Hard?

As a new founder, it’s tempting and often discouraging to compare your inside to another’s outside. Every other founder and company looks so well put together, whereas you are of course all too aware of your shortcomings and insecurities.

Because of how much we deify the great entrepreneurs of our time, we end up inevitably comparing our new company

John Koenig • Edward Lando

I'm 24, dropped out of Duke, joined YC, and bet everything on a startup. Here's what actually happens when you go all-in: 1. Your co-founder relationship matters more than your product: You can pivot products. You can't pivot people. Most startups die from founder breakups, not market failure. Choose your... See more

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