so you think you got a billion dollar company, huh?

$CMG had some widow-making e.coli issues in more ways than one. With a float of about 30.4M shares, at their peak of $750/share they had a mkt cap of $22B. At the low of trading recently at $400/share, their market cap was $12B. That’s a crazy $10B knocked off their value in a few months. All I can say is “DAT CRAY CRAY, YO."

After seeing hundreds of pitches of very young companies and the cursory scruitiny that is given to them by investors in the span of a few minutes of analysis, I can't  help but chuckle now when investors say something to the effect of "you're in a very crowded space" or "you're in a very tough space".

They say it as if there is a space out there in the universe that isn't crowded or tough, and being in that market will pay off  massive easy dividends to the startup founder and her investors. 

Pro tip: an uncrowded, easy space DOESN'T EXIST.

Because if it does exist, it only lasts about a minute before everyone and their brother figures out it’s easy money.

The business world is pure brutality.
Here is an example of a situation where one minute you have a billion dollar company.
​And the next minute you don’t:
Powa Technologies

If I ever have the privilege of being an angel investor I vow to say something like this spiel to young startup founders:
"The business world is absolutely totally fucking brutal.  I admire your ambition and drive and vision.  But I won't invest in you because I prefer not to get my ass handed back to me in fourteen chewed up little pieces in a space I know nothing about.  I prefer to get my ass chewed up in a space I do know something about.  Thank you."