It’s Easter Sunday. A time to celebrate those that have risen from the dead.
My favorite success stories are the ones that were written off for dead and somehow pulled it out and built something lasting and sustainable.
It doesn’t happen that often to be honest. Sure there are the pivots like Odeo>Twitter and Glitch>Slack. But I am not talking about them.
I am talking about something like the Fedex story. Out of money with nobody willing to invest. And Fred Smith pulled it out and built one of the most important companies of the latter half of the 21st century. Or Apple when Steve Jobs went back and turned it around. These companies were near death. And their founders figured out how to keep them alive and then turn them into juggernauts. That’s rising from the dead.
The truth is that over the past twenty years and two venture capital firms, I could not find a great example of a portfolio company of ours that rose from the dead. There were a couple that were near dead and were turned around and got nice exits. But nothing on the scale of Fedex or Apple.
It’s really hard to go from dead to juggernaut. So when it happens, you just have to look at the experience with wonder. That’s why these are my favorite success stories.
Happy Easter Everyone.
