When a Little Startup Success Becomes a Big Problem
Avoid falling for these mirages and head fakes
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten the email from a founder that boils down to “Everyone loves us, but we’re about to close the doors.”
Growth head fakes can take a lot of different forms. It might be an adoring throng of early adopters leading a team to believe they’ve discovered the next big consumer trend. It could be an early-stage investor waving a term sheet. It might even be a revenue number that shows explosive growth over the prior quarter.
Don’t get me wrong. Early success with a startup is great, and it’s not easy to come by. In over 20 years of building, growing, and advising startups from their first days to exit, I know that it can take years to get that first hint of traction.
In fact, just this past month, one of the startups I advise was successfully acquired after four years of “early” success. And during that same month, I got three inbound emails from founders who were watching their own success turn into a giant problem.
Here’s how each one unraveled and what I would do to avoid it.
