Justin Kan

The curse of money, expectations, and people kills pre-PMF startups

Shaan diagnoses why Atrium failed despite raising $75M: founder Justin Kan raised huge money pre-product-market-fit. Too much money lowers your odds, high-valuation expectations make you less nimble, and big headcount weighs you down.

“And what I call this is the curse of money, expectations, and people. And so what does that mean? The curse of money is when you get too much money before you actually know what you're doing, uh, you— that actually decreases your odds of success, doesn't increase your odds of success, right?”

Steal thisStay lean and underfunded until product-market fit; raising big and hiring fast before PMF lowers your odds.