Downside of the Upside
Inventus Capital Partners
Premier early-stage VC fund out of Silicon Valley; strong presence in India-US Corridor led by Indian-American stalwarts
Startups rarely get in trouble because the upside happens but they quickly do when the downside happens. Entrepreneurs do not spend time worrying about potential downsides. They always worry about how to make the upside happen.
It would serve entrepreneurs well if they were to worry about things that may go wrong. What would happen if a key engineer left? If the expected large order fails to materialize? There is an endless list of things that can go wrong. Some contingency planning to avert these would serve the entrepreneur well if they were to come to pass.
Unlike large companies, startups don't have the resources to have redundancies. So they have to be extra alert to see the trouble looming a mile away. Entrepreneurs should only take on the risks they have to. Any avoidable risk should be avoided.
More often than not success depends on eliminating all potential causes of failures. They should especially ask when things are looking up, what am I missing?