i witnessed a murder scene yesterday.

i came across this founder last night.

one from our zerobase batch.

casually stumbled on their linkedin.

i wish i could rewind time and unsee it.

it's like going back to 2017 when i got backed and made the biggest mistake of my life.

its like deja vu.

so they got funded - great.

but the first thing they do?

- hire x amount of employees.

- sign a fancy office.

- focus on marketing.

pre-launch.

i just thought, no fcking way this is happening.

i did 1on1s with them every week.

this was clearly not their first priority.

who do i blame?

not the founder.

myself and the investors.

i never told them what to spend their funds on.

but the vc also failed them.

this is what happens when vcs are run by people with no startup experience.

no experience in building a company.

no experience in m&a.

no experience in raising.

no experience in surviving at least 3~4 years with their product.

vcs shouldn’t just invest in the founder, the team, or the vision.

yeah, that’s important.

but also knowing the fundamentals.

like what pmf is.

why marketing is shit early stage.

why hiring too early kills a company.

why you shouldn't go global from day one.

but that won’t happen.

because no one in vc is experienced enough to ask these questions.

another murder scene witnessed in the startup world.

(dall-e - murder scene in the startup world)