> If you DO trust the CEO, then the only time your startup is failing is when the CEO tells you they're close to failure, running out of money.
The question is not really "how to know your startup is failing right now." I think it's pretty obvious when a startup is already failing.
The question is, instead, what the signs are that a startup is on the "wrong track" and will inevitably begin failing six months to a year down the line.
I've worked at several companies that were already in the "inevitably going to fail" category before I was even hired—retroactively, looking at when they took on the qualities that ended up killing them, they had those qualities for my entire tenure there (though they didn't previously had them; frequently I was hired as the replacement for the key cofounder whose departure, according to others there, signalled the beginning of the end.)
So, I don't want to know whether my startup is failing. I want to know whether a potential employer is failing, so I can avoid riding yet another startup into the ground and suffering through the inevitable cash-crunch and lay-offs. What are the warning signs, visible from the outside, that a startup is headed that way?
The question is not really "how to know your startup is failing right now." I think it's pretty obvious when a startup is already failing.
The question is, instead, what the signs are that a startup is on the "wrong track" and will inevitably begin failing six months to a year down the line.
I've worked at several companies that were already in the "inevitably going to fail" category before I was even hired—retroactively, looking at when they took on the qualities that ended up killing them, they had those qualities for my entire tenure there (though they didn't previously had them; frequently I was hired as the replacement for the key cofounder whose departure, according to others there, signalled the beginning of the end.)
So, I don't want to know whether my startup is failing. I want to know whether a potential employer is failing, so I can avoid riding yet another startup into the ground and suffering through the inevitable cash-crunch and lay-offs. What are the warning signs, visible from the outside, that a startup is headed that way?