Good food for thoughts, I couldn’t agree with you more Nicolas ! Me too, I'm getting frustrated everytime someone asking me "How many are you?". Such a bad question... Same with "how much you raised?".
I tend to believe that when you have a bad business, people are looking for "social signals" to show people how successful they are. Sharing vanity metrics reflect the image we want to give of ourselves.
In the startup ecosystem, the perception of success is biased. I don't really understand the root cause... Media ? Sometimes it feels good to talk to "old entrepreneurs" who built great non-tech SMBs. Different mindset, different questions.
The startup world should admire profitable businessess like Mailchimp, 700millions$ revenue with "only" 1200 people. At my company, we're bootstrapped, only 10 people, making 250kMRR/month, and yet most people we met keep asking wrong questions...
The game is to build a business, not act like in a Reality TV show.
Thanks for commenting! Signaling and playing social status games don't lead to success. Most would prefer bragging about their headcount because they know their financial performance sucks. As far as the real entrepreneurs you mentioned, they might be too busy to chase press articles and social media fame. Mailchimp, Craiglist, or ahrefs (https://nathanbarry.com/ahrefs/) are monster businesses led by discreet entrepreneurs.
Bonjour Nicolas! Sorry for the unrelated comment, but what is the best way to reach you for an important inquiry? I couldn’t find anything else, let me know please thank you!
This bias (bigger = better) may be ingrained in our brains, as for most of history size/scale was the main advantage. Technology has gradually offered leverage and efficiency is becoming more important than scale (esp. in the field of violence, cf. The Sovereign Individual as well). But 100 years ago I don't think a small company (or country if we use this analogy in geopolitics) could have competed in such a short period of time with large incumbents, hence anti-trust regulations.
Yep, something like: "Look how big my factory is with all these workers!" "Look how impressive my army is with all these soldiers!" Labour was, with capital, one of the best forms of leverage.
Good food for thoughts, I couldn’t agree with you more Nicolas ! Me too, I'm getting frustrated everytime someone asking me "How many are you?". Such a bad question... Same with "how much you raised?".
I tend to believe that when you have a bad business, people are looking for "social signals" to show people how successful they are. Sharing vanity metrics reflect the image we want to give of ourselves.
In the startup ecosystem, the perception of success is biased. I don't really understand the root cause... Media ? Sometimes it feels good to talk to "old entrepreneurs" who built great non-tech SMBs. Different mindset, different questions.
The startup world should admire profitable businessess like Mailchimp, 700millions$ revenue with "only" 1200 people. At my company, we're bootstrapped, only 10 people, making 250kMRR/month, and yet most people we met keep asking wrong questions...
The game is to build a business, not act like in a Reality TV show.
Thanks for commenting! Signaling and playing social status games don't lead to success. Most would prefer bragging about their headcount because they know their financial performance sucks. As far as the real entrepreneurs you mentioned, they might be too busy to chase press articles and social media fame. Mailchimp, Craiglist, or ahrefs (https://nathanbarry.com/ahrefs/) are monster businesses led by discreet entrepreneurs.
Look How Big My Team Is!*
Bonjour Nicolas! Sorry for the unrelated comment, but what is the best way to reach you for an important inquiry? I couldn’t find anything else, let me know please thank you!
This bias (bigger = better) may be ingrained in our brains, as for most of history size/scale was the main advantage. Technology has gradually offered leverage and efficiency is becoming more important than scale (esp. in the field of violence, cf. The Sovereign Individual as well). But 100 years ago I don't think a small company (or country if we use this analogy in geopolitics) could have competed in such a short period of time with large incumbents, hence anti-trust regulations.
Yep, something like: "Look how big my factory is with all these workers!" "Look how impressive my army is with all these soldiers!" Labour was, with capital, one of the best forms of leverage.