My Journey of Beating the Odds and Changing Rituals
I have always struggled with self-promotion as I believe a fair amount is up to luck, a lot is up to others I’ve worked with, and much is related to how well I know how to pick potential winners. Nonetheless, I’ve been encouraged to share my track-record as it seems unusual and lends credence to the things I’ve learned along the way and have been asked to share.
My journey has spanned decades of observing, modifying, creating and carrying forward rituals. I’ve been fortunate to work with amazing teams in 11 companies that have disrupted various industries and survived. three filed for IPO and three were acquired. Seven achieved valuations of over $1B. I’ve also coached players and sports teams to winning nationals and competing in world championships.
In terms of beating the odds, the practice of recognizing fear as healthy and panic is deadly has applied in almost all of those cases. That mindset allowed us to find success after existential threats to the point of barely being able to make a final payroll. That includes a BroadVision that later achieved a $26B valuation. These existential survival moments are often rites-of-passage that enable success. See also the Weathering Storms Ritual.
- Startup Success Rates: Approximately 90% of startups fail, indicating that only a small percentage ever achieve significant milestones. For those that do, the journey to high valuations is fraught with risk and challenges.
- Unicorn Statistics: Data shows that only about 1% of startups that secure seed funding reach “unicorn” status, defined as having a valuation of $1 billion or more.
- I’ve been very fortunate to have been at 11 disruptive tech companies that made it from startup to survive where seven achieved unicorn status.
Successful Companies I Helped Beat the Odds
- Softlab, GmbH – joined as an early-stage startup. I was architect for the World’s 1st Integrated Software Development Environment which began my journey of learning what makes software teams succeed. Initial acquisition by BMW was at $300M valuation or $8.2B in today’s dollars.
- Cooperative Solutions – joined as an early-stage startup. Most funded tech startup in Silicon Valley at that time. Acquired by Bachman Information Systems for undisclosed amount.
- Informix, Inc – joined as a mature company. It was acquired by IBM for $1B or $1.7B in today’s dollars.
- BroadVision, Inc. – joined as an early-stage startup (on its last dime). Reached profitability before filing for IPO as the second fastest growing company on Nasdaq during dot com. It achieved a $26B valuation (or $47B in 2024 dollars).
- Taught K-8 to give back. Re-entered tech to prove to myself I could start fresh and climb.
- Intuit, Inc. – I joined mature company as an individual contributor. Later, as Director, Eng, led internal startup to build QuickBooks Online. Current Valuation $175B.
- Yahoo – joined as a mature company. Lead world’s largest casual gaming platform. Yahoo’s peak valuation was over $125B.
- IMVU (now Together Labs) – joined as a mid-stage startup. Aka “The Lean Startup” Still going and being coached/advised by myself. It has raised a total of $77.6 million in funding. The Lean Startup methodology builds startups using continuous innovation. Held Key-Note talks on Lean Startup Methodology.
- Twitch – joined early-stage as EVP, Eng. Acquired by Amazon. Current Twitch Valuation $45B.
- Pure Storage – joined as a mid-stage startup Pre-IPO. Filed IPO. Current Valuation $16B.
- Prosper Marketplace – joined late-stage startup as EVP, Eng Pre-IPO. Filed for IPO, still pending. Changed Rituals that saved the company, As of 2024, Prosper Marketplace has originated over $25 billion in loans.
- Hum Capital – joined early-stage startup as EVP, R&D. Now profitable and still growing. It has deployed $165M in capital to date.
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