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It's not the same. Startups go south, the founders split, things get wound down, and everyone tries again, or gets other jobs. This happens all the time. Nobody
by rdouble 14y ago
It's not the same. Startups go south, the founders split, things get wound down, and everyone tries again, or gets other jobs. This happens all the time. Nobody involved gets exiled to a small asian village. Matt Maroon said it better elsewhere in this thread. Bitcartel also made a good point about letting down early friends & family investors, which seems like it would cause more emotional stress than letting down professional investors.
That said, since it seems like half of hacker news imagines that VCs are something akin to loan sharks. Maybe the new breed of angel investors really are putting an emotional squeeze on founders these days? When I worked at startups, the investors were very hands off unless the founders were really mishandling things. However, I've been out of the scene for a few years, and there seem to be a whole lot more VCs, angels and incubators. Perhaps things have changed for the worse.
- wpietri 14y agoI'm not saying it's the same; I'm saying they are points on a continuum. All of which you can walk away from at varying costs. I'm perfectly ok letting down professional investors. And also the people I hired. And the users. And myself. That's the game; sometimes you lose. But that doesn't mean I won't regret it when it happens. Or tell those people I'm sorry it didn't work. Or work hard to avert that outcome. That's also part of the game. At least that's the game I want to play. I have no idea why that's controversial here.