Should I stay or should I go now? A field guide for discouraged founders (opens in new tab)

“I respect you enough to believe that you should have a really high bar for your own personal investment in this. What data has your company provided you that has earned your time, your money and your emotions?” This is what I’ve started asking founders as a way to give context to my feedback — because it lands better than, “This won’t work” or “I don’t want to back you.” It gets the founder objectively dispassionately assessing whether they’re a good bet—because it makes them take a look abo...