
The one kind of founder vcs will never fund - mese848
https://medium.com/swlh/the-one-kind-of-founder-vcs-will-never-fund-67c68d496da0
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zepto
This piece is excellent advice. It’s way better to retain integrity and build
on that than to dissemble and fudge things, if only because maintaining
separate realities is a tax on your brain.

However, the title is completely false.

Anyone who has been around the industry knows that both founders and
executives can achieve success through exaggeration, distortion, “acting as-
if”, “fake it till you make it”, dissembling and outright lies.

These things create low-trust toxic environments, but people can still make a
lot of money in those environments.

Don’t engage in these behaviors. They make the world worse for both you and
everyone else.

But don’t gaslight yourself into thinking that people are not successful
because of them.

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zadkey
TLDR: "...a founder that doesn’t tell the truth is the one kind of founder
that VCs will never fund.”"

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PaulHoule
Clickbait title but right-on punchline.

A business partner that is perceived to "lie" will kill your business, no
matter what business you are in.

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zepto
True in the limit, but they can easily be funded and create the impression of
success for a long time, and even exit before that outcome.

Theranos, and WeWork would be good examples.

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PaulHoule
Right, some people certainly do manage to build a business around lying, and
how they get past the societal defenses against that is a question -- "WeWork"
is a unicorn precisely because it is an exception to the rule.

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zepto
It’s only an exception because of how large/egregious it is.

