Reading today how GILT was acquired for $250M (after raising over $286M from VC), how Living Social imploded or Groupon fell from Grace, I am gently reminded that in the life of a start-up a lot can / will happen. Sometimes we rise, sometimes we fall. Sometimes all the investors in the world call you, sometimes you can't even raise a penny. Sometimes the press describes those men/women as genius, and sometimes a few month later as failures.
Behind those staggering valuations & offers (Groupon refused a 20 Billion $ offer from Google... yes yes $20,000,000,000...), there are men & women who every day try to give their best to build their company, make a livelihood, have dreams & hopes, but also fears & pains. In fact, 99% of entrepreneurs will never raise more than $1M and 75%+ of the companies in the world are not built that way... But who cares to tell that story?
Having gone there with Totsy I can only relate to them. To how it feel in those moments when all fall apart. When those who trusted you don't trust you anymore. When what was the "coolest" become the "ugliest" in the eyes of many. Let's not forget that it is often so unbearable that some take their life for it. Let's not forget that behind some of what seems sometimes like the shiniest dreams, is a much more invisible, painful, ugly, and dark story.
I still very often think of when we started this adventure, just a few of us. The spirit of the adventure, the dream. Not to make millions, but to build something that will help others. I think of my partners, our team, and our investors. We all beleived in it. We all tried.
So when we read those articles (below) let's not forgot the men & women, behind those companies. Very often those companies are/were like babies they gave birth to, help grow and had to let go. I have a very warm thought in my heart for all those entrepreneurs.
Maybe in the future, we will spend more time in the press talking about those stories, the dreams but also the pain, the sacrifice, and how we could & should try to build this world in a different way. A way where the human aspects are more included, more part of the equation, more taking care of during & after. In the same way, as we need to take care of our veterans when they come back from war, because they could teach us more on war than anyone else, and could help us build a different society.
Then maybe our society will be built with a new definition of happiness & success, one that include purpose, one that include compassion, one that include each and every one of us.
Maybe I am just dreaming... But I like it, I like it a lot, and I am going to continue talking about that dream, and make this my mission and my life purpose.
G
My talk on Life Purpose, Happiness & Success are HERE
From Unicorne to Unicorpse Gilt gets acquired => http://www.sramanamitra.com/…/from-unicorn-to-unicorpse-gi…/ Living Social Imploded => http://www.sramanamitra.com/…/from-unicorn-to-unicorpse-ho…/ Groupon fell from Grace => http://www.sramanamitra.com/…/from-unicorn-to-unicorpse-ho…/
