Somewhere I heard that a startup doesn’t fail when it fails. It fails when the founders give up.
In this “money is no longer free” market, that begs two questions: When should founders give up? And how should those founders manage their psychology while seeking the answers to such a momentous question?
I AM FACING THIS EXACT dilemma right now. My new consumer software startup has not gone particularly well by one sort of important measure: growth. It’s been a four-year grind to find some signal of product-market fit—and we haven’t found it yet. At one point, we had 12 people. Soon, it might just be my cofounder Jen Greenwood and me, at least until we rebuild in a more methodical way.
It’s been like panning for gold in a turbulent river: Sometimes the prize feels closer, other times farther away.
Still other times it feels like we are drowning in aimlessness and exasperation. An identity crisis looms for any high achiever
