Why many founders of funded startups thrive despite their startups going bust?

The success rates of startups globally are just 10%. This stat is slightly better for a funded startup. Just because your startup raised funding doesn’t mean they are guaranteed to succeed, even they face a high degree of uncertainty.

Over millions of startups (including small businesses) globally shut down every year however the fall of funded startups take the centre stage in the media. Unless you are living under the rocks you must have come across xyz startup which raised $100 million shut shop, abc tech with a $1 bn valuation shuts down etc. on a regular basis especially since the past 1 year when the Indian startup ecosystem started going through a turmoil after the bubble of 2021. Startup shutdowns are not new, they had been happening ever since the term startups came into existence and will continue to happen till the end of times. But have you wondered what’s the fate of he founders of those startups that die prematurely?

You will be perplexed to know that despite their startups going bust, in a sharp cintrast surprisingly their founders are doing really well in their lives with some working at great companies in good roles while some going on to run another successful startup. If you thought that the founders were lying inside their houses in an alcoholic recluse hiding faces from the world like you see the Amjad Khans and Sanjeev Kapoors of the 1980s bollywood movies then you are completely wrong. Although that might be the case with most of the non funded startup founders but definitely not with their funded counterparts. The founders of these failed funded startups move on to leadership roles in other startups or corporates earning 6-7 figure annual salary or some join VC firms or some start another startup.

You must be wondering how come these founders despite their failures are able to navigate to such roles which are dream jobs for millions. THE ANSWER IS JUST ONE WORD- NETWORK. While their stint as the founders of funded startups they have access to the angel investors, venture capitalists and their network of highly successful people in other companies. Access to such high profile people opens them a flood of opportunities which ensures that they thrive despite their startup’s premature demise. As is rightly said, your network is your networth. The founders of non funded startups do not have such luxury of network which deprives them of opportunities forcing them to live under obscurity and poverty.

Your network will take you to places where your degree cannot. So always try to cultivate a network of successful people which will ensure that you are never short of opportunities. This will ensure that you stay afloat no matter how hard the situation gets.

A few examples of what the founders of demised funded startups are currently doing. Peppertap’s co-founder Milind Sharma is currently the co-founder of a jewellery startup Mable, prior to that after shutting down Peppertap in 2016 he worked briefly at Shadowfax as the VP. Abhiroop Medhekar, Co-founder & CEO of Taskbob, a Mumbai based home services startup went on to become Associate Vice President of Elevation Capital post the shutdown of his startup in 2017. He worked for 2 years at Elevation before founding another successful startup called Velocity. Saurabh Goyal become the Director of Engineering & Data Intelligence at Disney Hotstar post shutting down TinyOwl, a startup that he co-founded in 2015.

So once again, remember folks- always try to seek the network of successful people.