This episode carries Alex Western's own address, with nobody on the show putting
questions to them. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.
Alex Western, Managing Director at Think3, discusses the structural conflict between venture capital portfolio economics and the individual survival of startups at a SaaStr event.
“We at Think Three think that there is an incentives misalignment, fundamentally, between most VCs and founders, and that that incentives misalignment is pushing companies to grow too much too fast, and it's ruining great companies like PowerDrive.”
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More from Alex Western
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Alex WesternJan 29, 2019▶ 18:20Is Growth Bad for Startups?
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Western: VCs are incentivized to force startups into unicorn outcomes
“So, if you're a VC, you have the incentive, no matter where you think the company might initially fall on this rank, force ranking of multiples of invested capital, you have an incentive to try to force every company to be a unicorn, to try to shoot for the st…”
Alex WesternJan 29, 2019▶ 4:35Is Growth Bad for Startups?
“Each time you raise VC funding, each time you bring more investors into your cap table, each time you have to introduce greater and greater growth projections in order to justify that valuation and get to the next step, you take more and more options off the t…”
Alex WesternJan 29, 2019▶ 10:01Is Growth Bad for Startups?
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Western: VCs push portfolio companies harder during market downturns
“Because ironically, if and as things start to turn sour, VCs actually have to push harder to make up the losses.”
Alex WesternJan 29, 2019▶ 6:45Is Growth Bad for Startups?
Insight
Western: Most B2B startups should prioritize customer retention over growth
“Most companies aren't necessarily in situations where they can grow that quickly, so we find they're usually better off actually focusing on retention, not on growth, but they can't make that trade-off because they feel a lot of pressure from their venture cap…”
Alex WesternJan 29, 2019▶ 8:41Is Growth Bad for Startups?
Insight
Western: Founders secretly prefer lifestyle businesses but feel market pressure
“Most of the founders we talk to actually want to choose the lifestyle option, but they're almost sort of embarrassed by it, given the market we're in, so they feel like they have to sprinkle a little bit of big leagues into it, and that just makes their lives …”
Alex WesternJan 29, 2019▶ 12:45Is Growth Bad for Startups?
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