Founders at Work.pdf

392 Founders at Work
Currier: I put one foot in front of the other. I was sleeping 4 hours a night with
the help of NyQuil, and then I’d just keep thinking, keep trying to find the language
and find new employees, trying to meet the VC who would understand
my vision and back me. I met with 43 VCs.
Livingston: Since you were a VC, could you speak their language better than
most technology founders?
Currier: I remember saying to them, “Look, in 4 years, we’ll be doing $18 million
in revenue with $4.5 million of profit. After that the sky’s the limit. I’m an
ex-venture guy; I’m telling you the truth. We can get to $18 million in year 4,
and 30 times $4 million is a $120 million valuation for the company at that time.
You’ll get 20 times your money.”
They all told me $18 million wasn’t interesting. And I’d say, “But most
people will tell you $50 million, and you know they’re lying. I’m already discounting
it because I’m a venture guy just like you are.” And they’d say, “Yeah,
but $18 million just isn’t interesting.”
So I changed my spreadsheet to say $50 million. And they said, “OK, that’s
pretty interesting.”
Livingston: Can you think of another example where you had to pull off a trick
to advance?
Currier: Well, of course you sometimes have to exaggerate. If you think there
are three places where you can get a lease, then you just say you have a lease so
you can move to the next step. You’ve got to say you are a step ahead of where
you actually are to move to the step that you want to be at.
To move to step two, people have to believe that you’re already at step two
so there’s no risk for them. Because they don’t want to take on your risk—you
have to take it all on. And then you have to take on the risk of fibbing.
Livingston: What would you tell someone who was considering starting a
startup?
Currier: That it is incredibly painful and it will take over your life. If you care
about it and if you have any chance of succeeding, you will stop being present
for the softer things in life like your family, friends, or dating life. And when you
are there with them, you’re not really there with them; you’re thinking about
this thing because you’re creating it, and it takes that amount of passion to make
it work.
Livingston: Did this ever hurt any of your relationships?
Currier: I almost didn’t marry my wife. She and I started dating about 2 months
before I came up with the idea, so she hasn’t really known me without it. I
couldn’t figure out if we should get married, but then I hired a new VP of engineering
and he transformed my life. Because I could trust him to do a lot of
important work, he gave me breathing room to actually feel something. Four
months after I hired him, I proposed and we got married. We now have four
great kids. I almost really blew it; the whole haze of the thing made it unclear.