Building It Up and Then Knocking It Down

Something about human nature loves promoting something beyond its natural limits and then relishing bringing it down hard. I saw this firsthand in the late 90s Internet bubble. Flatiron Partners and our portfolio were never as good as everyone made us out to be in 1999. And we were never as bad as everyone made us out to be after the bubble burst.

So I have to shake my head at the resurrection of the dead pool, which was made popular last time around by Fucked Company. Do we really need to celebrate when companies fail? It’s hard enough for everyone involved to deal with the dashed hopes and dreams of a failed startup. But now we are counting them like notches on a sword handle.

The whole thing, starting with overhyping young companies that are nothing more than a few people working their butts off to make something happen, to throwing them in the "dead pool" when they fail is not healthy. Just ask Britney Spears.