How Founders Save Their Startups

When the going gets tough, it’s time to experiment

Are you prepared to do whatever it takes to save your sinking business? And, more importantly, would you know where and how to start bailing the business out?

Every company — no matter how big or how small, how new or how old — eventually hits rough seas , a point at which the money coming in is nowhere near enough to cover the money going out. We saw this over and over again as the economic damage from the pandemic accelerated quickly and broadly, dragging all kinds of companies underwater.

But it doesn’t take a once-in-a-lifetime global quarantine to cause a negative revenue trend. It can happen to an individual company at any time, for many reasons: changing economic conditions; sudden market shifts; competitive pressure; loss of a key employee, partner, or supplier; even technological advancement.

The causes can be numerous, and the cures are all unique to the cause. So where do you begin?

Been there, saved some, lost others

I’ve been through a number of the broader economic downturns. Obviously, I’ve run startups through the most recent COVID-related crisis, but also the Great Recession and the dot-com bust. I’ve withstood minor disasters that…