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How We Secretly Lose Control of Our Startups
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table

The Goal is NOT to be a Startup

Wil Schroter

The Goal is NOT to be a Startup

Being a startup shouldn't be a goal, it should be a milestone we're doing everything to get beyond.

As it happens, a "startup" is just the formative years of our existence. And while the term itself is rife with excitement, it really masks our true ambition which is to become a plain ol' "company" without the "startup" in front of it.

It's perfectly fine for us to revel in our startup years, but in the back of our minds, as Founders, we should be thinking "How quickly can I stop being a startup?" and work our tails off to drop that title as soon as possible.

Startups are Sexy - at First

To be fair, being labeled a "startup" is sexy as hell at first. We're associated with wildly important terms like "growth," "opportunity," and "big outcomes." Who wouldn't want that?

It gives us the pixie dust we need to attract capital, talent, and media attention. It also gives us a baked-in excuse to not have any revenue, a product that is fully formed, or market validation. We can boldly exclaim "Of course, we don't have any of that, we're a startup!"

Frankly, we're blessed that any of that exists, because without the pixie dust of the word "startup", we'd just sound totally insane trying to ask anyone for, well, anything.

We want to be a "Company"... Hopefully

All of that initial energy and optimism only last so long though. At some point, our big dreams need to be backed up with big revenue. While we can convince some people to work for equity for a little while, that shit gets really old, really fast. Optimism, as it happens, doesn't pay for rent.

At that point, we need to get out of being a startup as fast as possible. We've already told everyone what this company could be, now we need to shut up and make it actually happen. And that's where we separate the dreamers from the doers.

It turns out that for all of our optimism, very few of us (statistically) can actually make that transition. It's not always of our own doing, as sometimes we're in the wrong place at the wrong time. In other cases what we thought could be a huge opportunity was just a small business, which is OK, unless we've just raised $20 million to find that out.

Brag About Not Being a Startup

For the very few of us who have made it through the startup gauntlet and can confidently say we're a "viable company," we should be bragging about that. Bragging about being a startup is like bragging about being a freshman in high school. The goal isn't to start school, it's to finish it.

We should brag about how employees will actually get paid. We should brag about how we've built something customers clearly want. We should brag about how we know exactly what our future holds. If that doesn't sound appealing, try living through a startup that doesn't have any of that.

That's not to say that being a startup isn't great — it is. I'm obviously biased on the term as I run a company that's called "Startups.com" but we're also not a startup ourselves. We were an idea at one point, but now we're a proven business with revenue, profits, and hundreds of employees that don't have to wonder about what will happen to us! But we revel in the fact that long before all of that, were in fact a startup, and the term served us well. So long as we were willing to do the work to retire that name for good!

In Case You Missed It

What Happens After I've Made It? We always dream about our startups making it big. But what happens when they really do? What happens when all of the risks actually turn into the payouts we had always hoped for? Are we actually happier?

What to Expect in the First Year (podcast). As Founders, we think we know how our products and businesses will look and function for years to come, but as with time, it's nearly impossible to expect the unexpected.

Retiring Early is a Broken Concept Retiring isn't really our end goal, so we shouldn't aspire to it. What we really want is to shape our life the way we want it to be.

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