Peter Sorgenfrei reflects on startup success as binary: either you make it or you don't. He spent 20+ years building companies where most revenue came in just one or two months each year, nothing the rest of the time. His advice: keep doing what feels right.
Success as a startup founder can feel very binary, right? It's either we win a new customer or we launch a product or we don't. Whereas success as a regular employee is measured more— less binary. It's more you get your paycheck every month, uh, as long as you do pretty well and the company's not struggling, you're basically guaranteed that income. I was talking about this with a friend this morning on our on our monthly walk. And I realized that for the last 20-odd years that I've been building companies, I literally have made, quote unquote, the money for the business maybe during 1 or 2 months in that year. Not necessarily the same months, but something happened that changed the entire year for us financially in a given month, and then we were struggling the rest of the time. I'm sharing this today to just remind you that It can feel very binary, it probably is very binary, but it will be okay as long as you keep doing what you think is right
