Being a Startup Founder is a minimum wage job — Here’s the proof

“Over 70% of startups fail or die. 3% of companies exit above $100 million, 0.7 % exit above $500 million, 0.2% exit above $1 billion, 0.06% exit above $2 billion. In the 1,000 companies hand-selected and funded by venture capital, only two of them can get to an exit over $1 billion. Five companies exit between $500 million and $1 billion. A total

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Sure, macroeconomic conditions change and the cost of capital underpins everything loss-making, high growth start-ups are valued on. It just feels a bit tough on founders like Teo, who now had to fire 44 people to fit a growth profile that, until two months ago, was likely the apple of her VC investor’s eye.

the power of imagination and optimism is an amazing and essential part of innovation. But over the years, we’ve become so enamored with the unicorn valuation as the goal, that we started valuing the wrong things and overlooking the fundamental physics of business.

With capital at zero cost, growth at all costs became the mantra. How fast can you gr... See more