Tuesday, September 22, 2015

The Startup Scene is Broken

Startup companies that turn into major runaway successes are as rare as pigs with wings.
Think of the venture capital industry as that annoying, and possibly psychopathic, teenage kid we all knew. They are standing at the top of a cliff with a handful of pigs, tossing them over the cliff, one at a time, to see if they will develop wings and fly before they hit the bottom.
Something has changed in society in the last 20 years. We are all judges and critics. Anybody who tries but doesn’t measure up to our standards of perfection is judged as a failure.
It’s happening all across society. There are fewer and fewer opportunities for people to rise up through the ranks – they are either brilliant from the beginning or they are nobodies. Anecdotally, this phenomenon is happening all across society.
In our hyperconnected “hey, watch this YouTube video” world we are less and less willing to try for fear of criticism.
Amateur sports and local clubs are getting  less funding and membership. Amateur and professional theatre companies are suffering. The Arts get less funding. There are less live performance venues, and so on.
We see this replicated in the startup scene. Somehow, everybody who has an idea is supposed to be the next Steve Jobs.
The venture capitalists and other well meaning investors are really gamblers. They overcapitalise startups with ridiculous product expectations and timelines, and put everybody in a pressure cooker environment.
The average startup founder takes 3-5 years to develop proper commercial skills (shorter if they are intensively mentored). However, we don’t allow for this.
How many people have had their ambitions destroyed by this kind of mentality. How many good people don’t want to be in the industry any more because they know they have to work hours that would make an investment banker look lazy. How many people hate the culture of high pressure startups. How many amazing companies have failed to come into our lives because of the seeping toxicity of the current startup ‘scale or die’ focus.
People need to be able to fail. They need to be able to learn the hard way. They need to be able to take a chance, and not have the whole house bet on it. Most of the large companies we see in the world started out as small companies, and many of them stayed that way for years if not decades.
Think of companies as being children. You help them learn. You provide them with opportunities. You nurture them. You don’t tell them they are rubbish if they aren’t the best. You don’t kick them out of school if they aren’t the top of the class.
I would love to see the media and society celebrate the many, many small companies that are out there that aren’t on the track to become the next Facebook or Google or Uber. Let’s celebrate anybody with the courage to start up a company and see their idea become reality. Let’s celebrate those who manage to make a living for themselves and a few employees – that is proof their idea was great and that they are an amazing person.
Next time someone tells you that your company has to scale or die, just stop talking to them. You are just fine. Take a chill pill and get on with making your idea reality. If it happens to turn into something huge, then that is fantastic, but most of all, just enjoy the journey you are on. You are my inspiration.