When it comes to recommendation, tech loves standardization. Startups are sometimes informed that there are specific metrics to hit, deadlines to satisfy, timetables to measure themselves in opposition to.
Examples abound: Right here’s the perfect sum of money to lift at your Collection A spherical; right here’s what number of workers it is best to have earlier than hiring this government; right here’s what stage to rent authorized counsel; and, most just lately, right here’s what share of workers it is best to lay off if you happen to’re unable to entry extra financing.
(The reply is 20% of workers, relying on who you ask).
There’s a response to a few of these common statements: Startups are difficult, and one dimension definitely doesn’t match all. However nonetheless, these startup requirements assist level corporations in the correct course, in some unspecified time in the future changing into the established order.
That’s why when entrepreneur Paul Graham, the co-founder of Y Combinator, urged that he’s seeing startups with 20 years of runway thanks to large 2021 fundraises, it struck me. Isn’t the overall recommendation that startups ought to have three years of runway? And if we’re in a extra bullish market, 18 months?
My delayed response to this August tweet apart, let’s speak about runway. As you possibly can inform by the headline of this piece, I feel that the perfect size of runway is a fantasy — alongside different startup myths like more cash equals extra development. By the tip of this piece, chances are you’ll agree.
