Thread by @bgurley

As people come to terms with the weight of our new environment, they are slowly beginning to realize how radically things have changed. One area in particular that has changed - the required level of "corporate performance" needed to simply survive (let alone thrive). 🧵

2/ Building startups WAS a historically difficult endeavor (see chart). The past 5 years things have been "much, much easier." Cash was easy to come by (round frequency unprecedented), & no one was held to any profit goals, yet many companies still received high valuations.

3/ Cash is now hard to come by; investors are expecting solid unit economics & earlier profitability. Everything is immediately 5-10X harder. As such, survival is now depedent on hard-core, disciplined, top decile business execution, which no one learned in the past 5 years.

4/ Last month, I pleasantly stumbled upon a podcast where @GuptaRK22 interviewed the highly celebrated NBA player @ShaneBattier. In the podcast, Shane talks about some of the leadership traits of Duke's Coach K (most successful all-time). I nodded along. open.spotify.com/episode/3gTlIW…

5/ When done, I took some notes. Coach K believes (1) the team is more important than the individual, (2) he expects each individual to perform at their very best, & (3) the team needs a single, shared objective function. You can see why this approach would optimize team success.

6/ Reflecting, it occured to me that many in Silicon Valley would take exception to such a framework. During the bubble, they expected the corporation to cater to the individual (the opposite of Coach K, JFK), and in many cases, individual needs were held above the company needs.

7/ I don't intend this to be a moral pitch, lecture, or manifesto. I am solely suggesting that if you don't ensure that your company is executing at the very best of its ability, with a team-first attitude, with a shared common goal, odds are likely you will fail. New rules.

8/ The great @johnhopebryant shared the attached "proverb" at a recent meeting, which was 100% spot-on for today's demanding environment. "When the sun comes up, you'd better be running." Run as fast as you can to help save your company's life. "Easy" popped with the bubble.

9/ Startups/private companies are not for everyone. If you don't want this type of environment/responsibility, there are many wonderful jobs at large profitable companies that will not require such a commitment. But if you plan to stay, be ready to run. Your team needs you.