Untold Secrets from the Grave
A Silicon Valley Story
Dinner. Two founder friends and myself. All alone. We mustered around the kitchen table and the stories started to spread.
Ghost stories. Scary stories. Stories of rocky beginnings and tumultuous endings.
Untold secrets from the graveyards of our startup experiences.
It’s easy to think of these tales as helpful advice to avoid a misstep, but that’s quite the naive view. These anecdotes are the corner stones that companies rise from, they are the nit and grit that forms their foundation bricks.
Why is YC such a powerful force? It’s not the coaching or “office hours” the partners provide. It’s the off-the-record candor at the Tuesday night dinners. That’s where the magic happens and the truth is told.
As I’ve been ruminating on this, a few major takeaways have surfaced:
- The passing of these secrets is reason the valley (& bay area) is the fertile ground it is. These conversations only happen in confidence, and that confidence comes from relationship building with people in the same physical space. Which brings me to…
- Networking. It’s not about spreading your web for second-degree warm intros. While that’s a happy value-add, the primary value of your “network” is the institutional knowledge they have but can’t publish. For the which reason…
- You better not be a sham networker. You can have all the trappings of a robust network with LinkedIn connections for miles and not make real headway here.
Want to found a company? Cultivate these deep relationships. Be open, be honest, be vulnerable, and above all else be reciprocally beneficial.
Loving and learning,
Anna Marie
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