Many founders chase billion-dollar exits when they could build profitable $50 million businesses instead. A startup advisor hears this misalignment weekly: founders optimize for VC money and scale over actual profitability.
I look at a lot of startups that are trying to be billion-dollar companies and I go, and I see so many that are like, man, there's a wonderful $50 million business here and you're screwing it up trying to turn it into this billion-dollar company. I think that I probably have that sense like once or twice a week when I work with a lot of these founders.
