Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Your company dying isn't you dying
One founder had panic attacks while running a company that was failing, convinced that if the company died, he would die too. That wasn't true. Closing it was still very painful, but the business is blended into a founder's life and is not the whole of it.
The lesson is that founders need to take care of themselves and the people they build with, so they keep the power and mental capacity to be creative in the most complex situations. Many founders don't pay enough attention to this.
A second lesson is to bring problems to investors and advisers early, because they are the first people who will come and try to help. That goes against the polished posts on LinkedIn where everyone's success is their second name. Building a company is mostly constant failing, and the version that looks easy usually hides a lot of work behind the curtain.
Why do founders tie their identity to the company?
Founders often work on one project for a decade, with their savings, reputation, and daily routine all invested in it. Psychologists describe this as identity fusion, where a person's sense of self merges with a group or cause. A 2019 study in the Journal of Business Venturing described entrepreneurs' passion as closely linked to identity. Because the company is the main source of purpose, a threat to it registers as a threat to the self.
Why do polished success stories distort how startups look?
Social platforms reward positive announcements such as funding rounds, launches, and milestones, while failures are rarely posted. Statisticians call the result survivorship bias, which means that only the cases that succeeded are visible. Studies of venture-backed companies show that a large share return little or nothing to investors. The visible record therefore overstates how smoothly most companies grow.
Why do investors want problems raised early?
Investors hold equity, so their returns depend on the company surviving, and early information gives them time to act. Intros to customers, hires, or bridge financing all take weeks to arrange. A problem disclosed late often leaves only a few options. Venture investors also see many companies, so they have often watched the same problem before.
More from Aparti
