Thursday, June 6, 2013
Insights: How to Survive the Series A Crunch--From Someone Who Didn't
For today's Insights and Opinions article, we share the cautionary advice of Sean Pervical, the former founder/CEO of WittleBee, in How to Survive the Series A Crunch--From Someone Who Didn't.
CEO/Founder's only jobs:1) Don't run out of $$2) Recruit AND retain best talent3) Set & spread the vision It's harder than you think.
— Jason Evanish (@Evanish) May 3, 2013
The above tweet really encapsulates what's required to lead an early-stage startup. If you're a fellow founder, you're likely nodding your head a bit now. You already know how tough it can be to manage the delicate act of balancing all of the above. Even when you're doing great, it seems one of those is always out of whack. And when times are tough every one of them can be screwed up.
If you're in-between your seed round and your Series A round, this post is for you. Especially if you happen to be in the e-commerce space. Today, those companies face the biggest challenges hitting the break-even point or raising additional capital. This was my experience, and out of it I have a few recommendations. I tend to give a healthy mixture of both good and bad advice to other founders, this post has a little of both I'm sure.
Recently I had to step down from my own startup for a few reasons, the main one being #1 on that list above: Don't run out of money. (More...)
Read the rest of Sean's article, How to Survive the Series A Crunch--From Someone Who Didn't.