Light and Darkness

As an entrepreneur, I need some inspiration from time to time. The source for this comes from non-fictional books (some fictional also) and blogs. Its interesting and comforting to read about people who have been in similar situations like yours during their journey and eventually found success. You could relate to them and their situations/circumstances.

And then, at times you read blogs like these : Uber Heads to the DeadPool. (For the uninformed, Techcrunch maintains a list of blogs as DeadPool which are related to the demise of startups)

Going through the DeadPool list is also interesting. Reading the absurd situations in which Startups had to shud down shop is scary. There are many startups which were successful in obtaining first round (or even second round) of funding and due to unseen circumstances, they had to close and let their employees and customers go. And startups in the DeadPool list were generally ones who were in news since past 1-2 years. Who knows, how many other startups are there in this world in remote corners of the world, who attain some success and eventually die out.

Why I am writing this ? Well, even I dont know. The news of Uber shutting down because of crisis in the economy and investors stopping their support all of a sudden is scary. Who thought that such imbalance in nation’s economy could affect a startup in the lower order of the ecosystem.  Who could forsee this happening ?  Back in May 2008, when Uber was clinching a Series B funding of $7.6 million, did the executives know that American economy is on the verge of collapse which will lead to investors backing out.

Here we are, managing our own business, taking care of daily activities, trying our best to satisfy our customers, trying to generate sources of revenue, searching for funding and during these tasks, there are other forces in action which you or your company are not even concerned about. And then these forces eventually wipe you out before you can even comprehend what you did or what you shouldn’t have done. So either you keep your risks low and maintain a risk mitigation plan or just be prepared for whats going to happen. In the end, whatever happens, happens for good.