The "Most Money Raised" game

One of those stupid games sometimes people play is just how much money can I raise. What's the stupid prize? If you play the "raids as much as you can" game often, you lose control of your company.

So, like, when you confront the challenges, suddenly you know your board can fire you. Often you find yourself burning tons of money because a lot of people who gave you money expect you to spend it.

Oftentimes you have the wrong people on your team. You have a bunch of people who think you've made it, who think that this is, you know, the next Google, when in reality it's not.

And then, last, you might have to change what you're working on or change the problem or pivot in some significant way. But now there are all of these people and all this money and all this momentum going down a direction that's driving your company off the cliff.

And that pivot becomes 10 times harder, or damn near impossible, oftentimes. But you did win the fundraising game!

Yeah, it's a congratulations! So, congratulations! Here's your prize: you have a messed up company that shouldn't have raised all the money, and you've got to dig yourself out of a disaster.