When it comes For tips, technology loves standardization. Startups are often told that there are certain metrics to achieve, deadlines to meet, timetables to measure themselves against.
There are many examples: This is the ideal amount to raise in your Series A round; this is the number of employees you should have before hiring this executive; this is the stage to hire legal advice; and most recently, here’s the percentage of employees you should fire if you can’t access more funding.
(The answer is 20% of employees, depending on who you ask).
There is an answer to some of the following general statements: Starting up is complicated, and one size certainly doesn’t fit all. However, these startup standards still keep companies on track, which will at some point become the status quo.
That’s why when entrepreneur Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, suggests that he sees startups with 20 years of runway thanks to the huge fundraisers in 2021, it has blown me away. Isn’t it general advice that startups should have three years of runways? And if we’re in a more bullish market, 18 months?
My delayed response to this August tweet, let’s talk about the runway. As you can tell by the title of this section, I think the ideal runway length is a myth – along with other startup myths like more money means more growth. By the end of this section, you can agree.
