8 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 29.1 ms ] thread
> A LOT of startups are going to go under — more even than you might expect — because they were going to die anyway and this is a great chance to blame that inevitable death on the pandemic.

This is true in a lot of different contexts.

Corporate executives will use this period to offload all the bad news, write downs, etc., they can. Sales cycles will be shifted to underperform in Q2 (which is expected) in order to try and boost Q3. Companies that have no need to lay people off will use this as an opportunity to "cut the fat."

Yep a travel startup I was helping build MVP fired everybody last week.

A startup in a sector of the economy that depends on people being in close proximity to one another is now likely a bust.

Conversely, now may be the time to do the ground work so that a startup is ready to launch as soon as demand returns.

Maybe not doable with VC money, but with sweat equity.

What problems was it trying to solve, if you may answer?
Agile, remote friendly companies are still thriving. The ones who are having trouble are older less nimble companies struggling to get their workforce online and being productive.
Creative destruction can take many forms.
They won't continue to thrive if no one is buying anything. Where I'm at is already projecting a $25 million loss due to lost revenue, and that's just based on projections through June.
I'm still trying to figure out which side is Katherine the Great.