14th
Spend to success
So I’ve been VERY behind in doing anything post-y in way, way too long. However, I’ve been reading a LOT recently on the impending doom in the startup/tech world (Web 2.0 is DEAD! Did you know that?!) and it’s starting to kind of piss me off. I have a very simple view about startups:
You have to spend to succeed. Survival is NOT Success.
What’s that mean? Well, if you have an employee, and you feel they’re critical to success, you keep them. Period. No matter what that means, no matter what the market looks like. If you have an employee that’s just filling a seat, you fire them, regardless of the market. If you have things you NEED to succeed — employees, marketing budgets, etc — you NEED to keep them running. Your job as an entrepreneur is to WIN. Winning means the same regardless of your stage, size or cash position. If you fucked up and planned poorly, you should FAIL. If you were spending in excess because cash was cheap, you should be taken out back of your overpriced office, tied to one of your overpriced chairs, and shot. REGARDLESS OF THE ECONOMY. Success is YOUR ONE AND ONLY JOB. Anyone who says so otherwise is just silly — and wrong. You should have been doing this 2 years ago as much as today. Any investor who overlooked excessive spending before should shut their yaps now. The plan to success then should be as relevant today as it was then, otherwise it was a bad plan.
Trying to “just survive” just means you’re going to fail slower. That sucks.
