What Shutting Down Your Startup Feels Like - Avni Patel Thompson of Poppy with Kat Manalac | Y Combinator

I had a chat last night with a billion-dollar SaaS founder/CEO. He's raised $200M at a $2B valuation in 2021. Living the high life in SF with a crazy house and a Porsche 911. On the surface, it seems like he has it all and living the dream. But he called me out of the blue at 11p last night to vent. It’s been 9 years since he started the compan... See more

If you’re forming a startup, there are generally two kinds of stories to choose from about what the startup is for. Keep in mind that startups are companies that are trying to take over some subsection of the world. It’s ambitious stuff, so they tend to take on lots of early investment. They get somebody to give them a lot of money so they can hit ... See more

Artify was an american company founded around the idea that businesses and individuals could enjoy renting artworks on-demand to display at venues, homes etc. In 2012, it received funding from Peter Thiel in an oversubscribed round and was a great topic for excitement in SV, but was shut down a year later; This sparked me to wonder : why the sudden... See more

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.