How Startups Deal With the Constant Threat of Failure

If you’re going to do startup, you’re eventually going to fail. It will be shocking, painful, and costly. And until you’ve failed a few times, you won’t be ready for it, because failure is one of the most misunderstood topics in startup.

Let’s fix that.

Look, I’m obviously not the first person you’ve heard bang on failure as an inevitable outcome of startup, or for that matter any type of business. In fact, I’m willing to bet that you’ve also heard a lot of noise about how it’s good to fail, you need to fail, you will recover, and the business community will be right there waiting with open arms when you’re ready to try again.

Having done startup for the better part of 25 years, let me assure you that there’s a lot of truth there. But also a lot of little white lies.

Failure comes out of nowhere

About a month ago, I had an hour’s discussion with a co-founder of a compelling startup. During that call, I mostly listened as she talked about their model, their progress, and where they felt like they were headed next. It was all good, verging on great, and I hung up the phone excited to hear from her the following month.

Last week, she sent me an email. The startup was done. Just like that. So we hopped on the…