Let me sketch a not-so-hypothetical startup trajectory:
Small team takes small seed round in 2015. No further funding; growth rate likely not investable at any point. Comes to 2020 with founding team ready to do next thing.
Business has +/- $1M ARR of high-quality SaaS rev.
Small team takes small seed round in 2015. No further funding; growth rate likely not investable at any point. Comes to 2020 with founding team ready to do next thing.
Business has +/- $1M ARR of high-quality SaaS rev.
Two ways to look at this:
“Whelp darn you tried to run a VC-funded company, fell off the track, and struggled for years. Better luck next time.”
or
“... Do you know any other engineer in St. Louis with +/- $5M (divided by founder count) of equity 5 years into career?!?”
“Whelp darn you tried to run a VC-funded company, fell off the track, and struggled for years. Better luck next time.”
or
“... Do you know any other engineer in St. Louis with +/- $5M (divided by founder count) of equity 5 years into career?!?”
There will *inevitably* be a capital stack and supporting infrastructure which helps people enthusiastically aim for this outcome.
(I also think that in addition to remote hiring this is one thing that is going to transmit SFBA PM salaries globally. If Google won’t hire you to be a Google PM in St. Louis then a Google PM will take 7% for an investment in your company sized like their annual bonus.)
(That last one an exaggeration but less of one than you probably think.)
“Can you name a company that took this trajectory?”
I saw one hit a semi-public data feed today which prompted the thought, but a) this is common enough that it deserves a conceptual category and b) although I don’t consider this a failure at all, I don’t know founding team.
I saw one hit a semi-public data feed today which prompted the thought, but a) this is common enough that it deserves a conceptual category and b) although I don’t consider this a failure at all, I don’t know founding team.
And I respect that there are some founders who might consider this a failure and therefore publicity of the outcome against their career or psychic interests. While that is not something I agree with prudentially, I would defer to respecting that w/o permission to contrary.
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