Interesting Links for 01-11-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Israeli Intelligence Ministry 'concept paper' proposes transferring Gazans to Egypt's Sinai

(tags:israel palestine egypt )

2. Hw locational pricing could save businesses (and everyone) on electricity bills

(tags:electricity location uk economics )

3. Sports (and competitions) shouldn't worry about keeping themselves simple, learning the complications keeps experienced fans interested

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(tags:fandom sports competition viaDanielDWilliam )

4. I'm glad Neil Gaiman liked this post about Sandman, which meant I got to think about bits of it in ways I hadn't before

(tags:sandman neilgaiman dreams )

5. Edinburgh's Gorgie Farm Site: Community Consultation Questionnaire

(tags:Edinburgh farming animals community )

6. Black 4.0 Is The New Ultrablack

(tags:colour art )

7. Samhuinn Fire Festival - photos as hundreds gather in Edinburgh to mark beginning of winter at Holyrood Park

(tags:fire beltane edinburgh photos )

8. What The Goddamn Hell Is Going On In The Tech Industry? (So very very badly run)

(tags:Technology business epicfail organisation )

Comments

Re: 8.

[jducoeur]

Serously -- it's not that simple. The media claim that it's that black-and-white, because it sounds cool and exciting, and the VC industry tries its utmost to feed the impression that it's not a startup unless it's blitz-scaling. But that's bullshit, and always has been.

The objective is to achieve a high rate of growth eventually, and/or be acquired for a reasonable multiple. (In practice, most startups, large or small, are really trying to be acquired.) But it is untrue that you have to buy into Musk-style faster-faster-faster abuse to get there. It's an evil meme, and really deserves to be squashed.

Re: 8.

[andrewducker]

Interesting - how long are VCs in that kind of situation willing to wait for a return?

Re: 8.

[jducoeur]

Depends on the VC and the company. The maximum window I've heard of is ten years, but they'll usually get impatient before then. In my experience, the VCs will be looking for the exit somewhere around 4-6 years, so you'd better be achieving growth (or have a good story about how you're turning things around) by then.

Of the two successful exits I've been through, I think one was at six years and the other at eight.

One of the unsuccessful ones got the tap pulled after just three years, but that was a weird situation (we had very little money and had used it extremely well, and were on the verge of a successful exit when the nuclear winter of 2002 train-wrecked us).

Another got the plug pulled after five years and at least one deeply ridiculous pivot, after which I more or less took over the company, pivoted us again, and the Board decided to call time on us a couple of months later.

The one that only survived for less than two years was the dotcom company, which did attempt to blitzscale, tripped over its own feet, and crashed with little to show for it. (Fun project, but wow we did a lot of things wrong.)

Re: 8.

[andrewducker]

Thank you for the information!