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January 15, 2009
Posted by Ryan Graves

The Sand Hill Road to Fake Success

Sand Hill Road sign from 280 north.
Image via Wikipedia

People think that winning an awards show like The Crunchies makes them a success…false. Along those lines, SO many people consider getting a solid round of venture funding a success…false again.

Why or how is it that a company can be successful without making money (or, creating value)? If you sell your company to Google or Oracle or whoever, then you’re a success. You’ve created an entity that creates value enough for another entity to spend $$$ for what you’ve created. Similarly, if you create an entity that creates value enough so that consumers or other businesses purchase your product, and the money you make from that sale can cover the costs to create that product, then you’re a success. This is business success, very simple.

The notion of winning a venture round = business success, is still being carried over from the dot-com bubble of 2001 and the sooner it dies the better off entrepreneurs and VC’s will be.

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Money Is Destroying Your Project | How To Split An

[...] the behavior of young entrepreneurs before and after their first sackful of cash arrives from their rich Uncles on Sand Hill Road, youu00e2u0080u0099ll notice that rather than solving problems, investment breeds little more than the need [...]

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  • Hi. I'm Ryan Graves and this is my personal blog. I'm an entrepreneur living in San Francisco, but I'm from San Diego. My wife blogs too, and I love my family.

    I'm the VP Operations of Uber the startup changing the way people travel. Here's more about me, and more about my work.





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