Food for thought: Startups, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

The Disagreeable Paradox

“Unwavering passion”, “Relentless Innovation”, “Extraordinary Perseverance” – are common terms many would attribute to the best of exceptional founders, after all, most, if not all, would have their own episodes when they were misunderstood.

Everything from quitting that Ivy League education, to quitting that high-profile and stable profession, to paying $1billion for a startup with zero revenue sounds absurd but turned out well for them.

But surely disagreeing isn’t a guarantee to wild success – and the legendary Paul Graham breaks this down in his essay on having the right kind of persistence. He opined that there is a difference between stubborn founders who are determined and those who are simply obstinate, and the former are the ones who end up succeeding. The former are attached not to the means but to the goal and are persistent but willing to listen. The latter are obsessed over their own “how”.

Read more here: The Right Kind of Stubborn

So yes – even positive founder traits when taken to the extreme can become detrimental; nuance is important and it’s far more important to be stubborn, but not obstinate lest one becomes truly reckless.

IPO or not

After the 2021 downturn – the public markets are back up and exuberant.

The S&P 500 booked 20% annual gains for back-to-back years from 2023 to 2024, the best since 1997-1998. But the same can’t be said for IPOs, M&As and the private markets.

Crunchbase reported a 3% growth in overall startup funding in 2024 after a disastrous 2023. While artificial intelligence accounted for the lion’s share, startup funding still looks super dismal, considering the better business sentiments and interest rate cuts over the past year.

Financial Times reported that Goldman Sach’s David Solomon is now cautioning founders against going public at all costs, suggesting that unlike in the past, there are still truckloads of cash in the private markets for them to expand without all the regulatory and scrutiny hassle that comes with listing in the exchanges. That was what startup giants like Stripe, and ByteDance did, shelving their IPO plans at the height of crumbling valuations.

Interestingly in another report by CNBC – there are now signs that IPOs and M&As might be picking up, the pipeline is building, according to David Solomon.

Is 2025 a good year to list is really anyone’s guess. Taking your startup is a complex decision. On one hand, it is viewed favourably as a good way for founders and investors to cash out from years of hard work and keep the faith. But on the other hand, making the transition will certainly be big, with bigger obligations down the road.

As what David Solomon said – the number of public listed companies in the US has fallen from close to 13,000 to just 3,800 over the past 25 years; there has to be a reason for this.

It’s better to go all in with your eyes open, fully aware of the benefits and potential disadvantages down the road.

Interesting Reads:

Data Security over China’s very own DeepSeek: DeepSeek’s AI restricted by ‘hundreds’ of companies?and govt agencies in days | The Straits Times

Emerging turmoil for eFishery: Indonesia’s eFishery faces turmoil amidst fraud allegations | e27

Meta joins Databricks’ list of investors: Databricks caps US$15 billion fundraise with Meta as new investor - The Business Times

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2025 is shaping up very quickly to be a year of twists and turns. Hope you enjoy this month’s content. Stay tuned for more and hit the subscribe button!