Dalton Caldwell warns founders against chasing venture capital before building product leverage.
Insight
Caldwell: Ex-Google executives join early startups because they underperformed or misunderstood reality
“What usually happens is they either are, either they joined your startup because they're, they weren't doing well. I'm trying to think of a nice way to say it. Either there's a reason they joined your startup and left Google, or they had expectations that you …”
Insight
Caldwell warns that overly friendly industry networkers are often highly exploitative
“A lot of the folks who are most approachable when you are a first timer, or when you're just moving to the area, or you're trying to break into the industry, the friendly people that want to talk to you are often
The most exploitative, and they're the people …”
Insight
Caldwell: Effectively no startup gets acqui-hired after running out of runway
“No one gets acquired effectively. Like there's an asterisk next to no one. But the companies, of the companies that attempt, when they're lower on runway, they're, they flew the plane into the side of the mountain. There's no acquisition coming, man.”
Insight
Founders carry startup failure forever while venture investors quickly move on
“This is what's so weird about this business is like, who has to live with the rest of their lives that that was their startup. Or that they could have done something different. They weren't able to versus the investors like, yeah, whatever. Cool. And they go, …”
Insight
Caldwell: Predatory service providers systematically target and exploit struggling startup founders
“We see this a lot with struggling startups. All sorts of people will come out of the woodwork to sell you services or promise they'll connect you with the investors or they'll help you fundraise or you name it. And it's like, it's kind of like moving to Hollyw…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Caldwell: Many ex-Facebook employees feel they made money doing evil
“Yeah, like, I know a lot of ex-Facebook people who kind of, like, feel that they did evil, and they made money doing it, and they seem pretty unhappy about it. They're not happy about the work that they did in the universe.”