Founder Stories
Why ‘Winner Takes All’ Startups Leave Everyone Behind
Today’s entrepreneurs are learning the hard way that building for the long term is the only option
There’s an old fable that goes way back (stop me if you’ve heard this one) — it involves a tortoise, a hare, and a hair-raising (pardon the pun) race to the finish line. In the story, the hare is so confident in his undoubtable success, so brimming with ego, that he misses all the obvious signs and strays from the course to take a nap. Meanwhile, the tortoise remains constant in his mission, marches over the finish line, and wins the whole thing.
I’m starting to think there are a number of entrepreneurs who have forgotten this childhood tale.
We often talk about the venture space existing in a vacuum: one where entire businesses seem to be built on the back of marketing and a seemingly limitless desire to pump more capital into the next flashy thing. Valuations go up, along with outsized media attention, and the race to see how big, how fast, and how aggressively we can get there is on — “there” being a public offering or some other massive cash-out for a select few.
The thesis being: Growth solves everything, get big fast, and we can clean things up later.
