TechCrunch glorifies fundraising and team size instead of profitability. Twitter creates a narrative where $100,000 a year means you’re broke. This phenomenon is exacerbated by social media and the press. It’s a common problem that permeates our work and personal lives. We know this as ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’. They succumb to external pressures and societal norms, rather than focusing on what’s important for their startup. Why it matters: Founders play silly games out of fear. Most people who set goals get better at it over time. I would argue that most people don't start doing this well. Some of our best companies get so good at goal setting and accomplishing goals that they move faster than we would have ever imagined possible. What usually happens is they either joined your startup because they weren't doing well or they had expectations that you were farther along or more successful than you actually are and they get very upset with you. Then you wake up and you're like wow, what did I do? You think you're a big winner that you got someone from this cool company.

You can get someone with a title to leave Google or Facebook. Maybe there is a time where this is a good answer but so much of the VC content is aimed at late stage founders, not 2 or 3 person startups. This idea will get imprinted on your brain if all you do is consume VC content. It's time for my company to become a real serious company and to do that I need an executive team.

You have a messed up company and you've got to dig yourself out of a disaster and everyone's mad at you. That pivot becomes 10 times harder or damn near impossible.īut you won the fundraising game. You might have to pivot in some significant way but now there are all of these people, money and momentum going in a direction that's driving the company off a cliff. You have people who think you've made it when in reality you haven't. You find yourself burning tons of money because a lot of people who gave you money expect you to spend it. Suddenly your board can fire you when you're confronted with challenges. One of the stupid games people play is how much money can I raise? Let's say you won the game.

Play a stupid game win stupid prizes