Caldwell: Startups usually die from founders losing hope, not running out of cash
Dalton Caldwell · Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups: Resilience, tar pit ideas, pivoting, more | Dalton Caldwell (YC) · Apr 18, 2024 · at 38:16
Dalton Caldwell, Managing Director at Y Combinator, explains the psychological patterns behind why startup founders ultimately shut down their companies.
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“It's pretty rare. I would argue that the cause of death is that they had lots of firepower and they were feeling really positive and they just ran out of money. That's actually like more rare than founders think. It's much more common that they still have some money left. I'm not saying a lot, but some money and they're just like, yeah, I'm done. I'm out of ideas. I don't want to do this anymore. And again, fair enough, you know, but do you get what I'm saying? Like, I think founders are afraid that they're going to run out of money and that's why they're going to shut down. And it's way more common that they like their idea doesn't work and they have a big fight with their co-founder and then they can't agree on what to work on. And then they just like, or like, I don't want to do this anymore. And they shut down. That is the most common cause of death is something that sounds like that story.”
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