What Is the Definition of StartUp “Success”?

This is one of the great questions you will have to ask yourself as a founder. If your company does not live on, is it a failure?

• What if you make $1,000,000 or even $10,000,000 on a sale, but the acquirer shuts it down in 24 months? Is that a success or a failure?
• What if you make almost nothing on an acquisition yourself, but the product itself is beloved and lives on for decades? Is that success or failure?
• What if you sell for $1b (!), and the product lives on, but the name is changed, and no one even knows it was the company you started?
• What if your company is a success, but it is so hard on your family, you lose them?
• What if you IPO, run it for 20 years, then merge into another company, with a different name, and no one even remembers the name of the company you started?

This is complicated stuff, defining “success” and “failure”. Perhaps in the long-run, the only true win is getting to Mars.

I think one great thing about being a founder is you don’t really think about a lot of these questions until much later. The existential questions wait until after you’ve had a bit of a win, a chance to reflect.

Until then — it’s just so hard even to bring a new product into the world that actually gets any material number customers as all. That’s a success in my book right there. Getting to $1m+ in ARR and not going under is my definition of success, at least the first stage of success.