The Soul of Startups

Preface

In the middle of the pandemic when the world was turned upside down overnight, some of us out there were still consumed by the notoriety of startup behaviors while most of us were mourning the loss of freedom, a social life, families, and friends. I thought to myself, surely people stuck at home don't need to read more about who's done what wrong to who, but I was clearly naïve. I was still getting calls from journalists asking if I could comment on why Revolut was yet again being seen as a malicious employer. So, I picked up a pen (yes, physically at first) and started to write down my answers to their questions.

It began to look like a long overdue angered letter by a bitter ex‐employee who might have felt they had missed out on riding the waves of something bigger than a unicorn. But the more I wrote, the more I realized, that I too was at fault. I circled at my own behaviors, my misperceptions, the allowances I made as excuses for poor behaviors of leaders that continued to encourage their disrepute. I was half the problem.

This book is about the journeys of startup operators in both the good and bad forms. Some have had the luxury of being in healthy, thriving environments but I credit this to their ability to set boundaries for both themselves and their leaders. They clearly knew what they were doing, what fitted them, and not because they were lucky. I sadly did not learn this until after I survived a train crash in this ecosystem. Since then, I have continued ...