Technology

Startup Advice That Works

in ,
Startup Advice That Works

Startup advice doesn't work

The strangest thing about startup advice is that either it doesn't seem to work, or people don't read it. If it worked and people read it, good startups would be more and more common. But they're not. I haven't run the numbers, but no investor I've ever met has told me that startups succeed more often now than before.

Most things aren't like startups, and it'd be terrible if they were. If the lessons from civil engineering didn't hold from one building to the next, we wouldn't have anywhere to live.

And yet, people do seem to read startup advice or, at least, want it enough that there are endless books and companies and universities dedicated to giving it. I've even given a lot of it myself over the years, whether people wanted me to or not. I think the conclusion, therefore, has to be that startup advice just doesn't work.

Read More

Calculating About Magic

in

Once I’d officially failed, my friend, colleague, and investor Alice asked me, ‘are you happy you did it?’.

A hard question.

I failed last year. Closed down the startup I started. An adulting, unarguable, and public failure. I let people down - my investors and team members were mostly friends. Thinking about it now I feel ashamed and a bit sick. This isn’t a complaint. I’ve had plenty of good luck in life, some earned though lots not, and I deserved what I got this time.

So, am I happy I did it? That seems easy. No, I’m not happy I did it. Starting a startup was a painful way to lose my time, and (mainly) other people’s money.

But it’s not that simple, even if it wasn’t worth it.

Read More