Thread by @stewfortier

If there's anything I've learned launching startups the past 10 years, it's this:

How we talk about startups barely resembles what they're actually like.

Here are some things most people don't understand about startups (thread):

Startup failure rates are way lower than most people think.

They're still brutal, but they're not 90%+.

Lots of people make life-changing money by starting startups.

Also, new money is pouring in and de-risking the entire ecosystem.

95% of a startup's "competitive advantage" early on is just giving a shit.

Investors and founders waste way too much time talking about strategy.

What matters is if founders care 10x more about a problem than a salaried employee elsewhere.

If so, they’ll figure out how to win.

Startups don't die when they run out of money, they die when the founders run out of energy.

There is almost always a move to keep a startup alive.

The hard part is staying energized through massive ups and downs.

You can’t win the outer game without winning the inner game.

Launching a startup around an activity you love often guarantees you'll do that thing less.

If you love baking, don't start a bakery. You'll spend your time negotiating oven leases – or recruiting people who negotiate oven leases.

This is The Founder's Curse.

Case in point: I failed to write my last few newsletters because I'm busy running a writing startup.

Startups require deep creativity.

Self-proclaimed "creative" people love to dismiss business as boring or purely pragmatic.

But that misses the point:

There is no right way to solve a problem, making creativity key to success.

No two people could build the same company.

A large percentage of venture investing is Ponzi-like.

Lots of startup investors chase hype, pour cash into unsustainable growth, and trust that greater fools will follow.

Unlike a Ponzi scheme, there's often real value underneath it all – it’s just absurdly overpriced.

In the short term, launching a startup is a terrible way to “be your own boss.”

I learned this one the hard way.

It turns out that the people who run startups – specifically, startups with big ambitions – have more bosses than anybody.

From Evernote's former CEO @plibin:

One of the best recruiting "hacks" is to be somebody who is great to work with.

Most people assume your startup needs to be killing it to attract talent.

Nope. People bet on people, then ideas.

If you're an excellent person to work with, you'll be surprised who you can recruit

Beyond a certain point, a startup can only grow insofar as the leadership grows personally.

Lots of challenges that appear external are actually internal.

Example: claiming there's a talent shortage won't help your company, but getting better at recruiting will.

Failure is massively overrated.

Shutting down a startup can be a devastating, shitty experience.

It's often viewed as a "learning opportunity" to cope with the pain, not because it's actually a better way to learn.

There’s zero shame in failing, but it is costly.

That's it for now.

One of my next threads will break down more specific lessons I’ve learned from co-founding companies with $30M+ in funding.

You can follow me here: @stewfortier

Also, I'm more transparent in my weekly-ish newsletter.

No trolls = more openness.

Subscribe here: stewfortier.substack.com

To summarize:

1. Failure rates are lower than people think
2. Giving a shit is a startup's real competitive advantage
3. Startups die when founders run out of energy
4. Startups rarely let you do more of what you love
5. Creativity is key in business

To summarize (cont'd):

6. Venture investing can be Ponzi-like
7. Startups rarely let you "be your own boss"
8. Being a good person is the ultimate recruiting hack
9. Early-stage founders don’t work for their investors
10. Failure is massively overrated