Funding Makes Lots of People Miserable

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

There is some truth in this:

In my line of work, I’ve met a lot of startup people. I’ve met quite a few who’ve had their startups yanked out from under them… who sold, only to watch their babies murdered… who built something they loved, only to end up employees once more at the acquiring company.

I’ve met people who’ve had their VCs and boards run their companies into the ground, replace them, force sales. I’ve met people who were had to “manage” their VCs so they did as little damage as possible, but who were miserable that they had to do so.

The more I promote the idea that you don’t need to try to boil the ocean or take funding to be happy, the more people write me privately to tell me that they support my message. That they wish they hadn’t taken VC and that next time, they sure as hell wouldn’t.

I won’t name names, because I didn’t ask permission first, but some of them are people whose names you know.