Jason M. Lemkin warns startup CEOs that missing every plan destroys VC confidence, no matter how optimistic you sound about catching up later. Most startups hit rough patches lasting weeks to a year, but delusional optimism about making it up undermines investors.
VCs want to understand if you're going through a rough patch, you're not the first startup to have struggled for a week, a quarter, even a year, even to have had a year of hell. But delusionally believing you're going to make it up at the end of the year doesn't help anyone. It just undermines confidence. Okay, type number four the miss every single planner type CEO. This is one, and you see it in a lot of struggling VPs of sales and it's tough to excuse there, but it's even worse with the CEO where they just miss the plan.
