to this list I can add a few more reasons: A fairly strong potential for financial ruin; an amazing amount of personal drama; and deep strain on friendships among the founders.
After my last (also my first) company failed - my credit was heavily damaged (and after nearly 4 years it has yet to fully recover), repaying debt can take quite a long time (I spent the last 3.5 years working at a well paying corp job and I was only able to fully settle the debt early last year), and due to bad advice from a (very) expensive accountant the IRS was a thorn in my side for 2.5 years.
But, I'm about to do it again as the experience is amazing and a _fantastic_ education.
started off as an LLC, switched to a C corp 4 months later.
we found it impossible (within the time frame we needed) to sign big ticket contracts, for things like 10k sq/ft in office space (yes, stupid in hindsight), or a cage in a datacenter; for a company less than a year old without personal guarantees.
It's appropriate that Marc should post this piece today, the first weekday since I quit my job to work on my startup full-time. Just so I truly know what I'm in for.
Can't wait to read the rest of this series. Good times!
I'm glad he said something about sales; too many of the silicon valley blogs gloss over it or ignore it completely.
It's certainly the toughest thing to do (especially if, like me, you come from a technical background), but it can be tremendously important to your company, if there's no exit on the immediate horizon.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 40.1 ms ] threadAfter my last (also my first) company failed - my credit was heavily damaged (and after nearly 4 years it has yet to fully recover), repaying debt can take quite a long time (I spent the last 3.5 years working at a well paying corp job and I was only able to fully settle the debt early last year), and due to bad advice from a (very) expensive accountant the IRS was a thorn in my side for 2.5 years.
But, I'm about to do it again as the experience is amazing and a _fantastic_ education.
we found it impossible (within the time frame we needed) to sign big ticket contracts, for things like 10k sq/ft in office space (yes, stupid in hindsight), or a cage in a datacenter; for a company less than a year old without personal guarantees.
Can't wait to read the rest of this series. Good times!
It's certainly the toughest thing to do (especially if, like me, you come from a technical background), but it can be tremendously important to your company, if there's no exit on the immediate horizon.