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Business and entrepreneurs

The dark side of start-ups

By Administrator | 3 April 2018

Over the past 20 years, I have founded and funded numerous technology start-ups. During that time, I have seen a clear pattern emerging: start-up failure has become an accepted industry norm, and it has an impact that reaches far beyond financial loss to investors.

Having experienced my own journey of failure as a founder more than once, I have felt the very real, deep, personal impact of that failure on me, my family and my colleagues.

After my last start-up failure (a very public technology IPO crash) I couldn’t get out of bed for three months. My family received death threats. I had to move to a new house. I suffered terribly from depression and had some very dark thoughts. It was the low point of my career as an entrepreneur.

With a lot of support from my friends and family I managed to get back on my feet - and I wanted to help other founders who were struggling with failure and the stigma attached to it.

Approximately three start-ups are founded every minute. Of those start-ups, 92 per cent will fail within three years. Just think about that for a second. That is a lot of failure. Read more

Jamie Pride - Brisbane Times - 29 March 2018

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