For whatever reason, raising institutional capital is often viewed as the top of the mountain for a founder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Yah, I made it! Someone who’s not my Mom believes in me and they get paid an unreasonable sum of money to do nothing, irrespective of their own performance over the next decade. Hooray for validation!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s especially a boon for founders in retail tech, since pretty much every investor (logically) hates retail industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now comes a total mindf*ck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As retail founders progress in their journey they realize just how terrible their decision to wade into retail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shit.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n All my friends who spend way fewer hours on products with much weaker ROI are finding much greater success, faster.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Their customers care about their product.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n They have intelligent conversations with industry counterparts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Their family members don’t bother them with questions about why things are taking so long, and what they are doing with their lives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Innovation is rewarded.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Interested investors not only exist but they return their calls.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n They feel a sense of satiety and accomplishment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But I’m stuck.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I took someone else’s money.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to earn them a return – I can’t just quit.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And nobody would buy my company anyhow. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We’ll never reach enough scale for the economics to pencil.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re not large enough for the very limited number of potential acquirers to care.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And they have the distribution… all they need to do is spend some R&D cycles and clone my features.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I can’t be a standalone company.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n F*ck.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I was so wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the nominal TAM of a trillion dollars, these retailers don’t spend any money on anything. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n ROI is irrelevant.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Unless I steal from them I’ll never get paid fairly. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m utterly stuck.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve just pissed away some of the most productive years of my life with nothing to show.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n F*ck, f*ck, f*ck.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is literally the ethos expressed by. so. many. retail tech founders we know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s summed up as, “Yea, we’re barely surviving and if I put this amount of effort into an industry that gave a f*ck I would be a happier person.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are things going better than “barely surviving”? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then sell ASAP. To anyone. At any price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Just get out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Virtually every founder we know is secretly dying to leave retail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And go where?<\/p>\n\n\n\n