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Hermione's Start-Up Meltdown
Hermione explains the incredibly difficult process of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.
Start-Up Meltdown on National TV
Tonight I have a meltdown on national TV. It's not my proudest TV moment, but it’s definitely my most honest.
As a blogger you write about the good stuff; the start-ups that get funding or have big exits, you don't write about the 99% of startups that don't even get past the funding stage, the ones that fail or the founders who breakdown under the intense nature of entrepreneurship. And that's because the reality of building a start-up is not pretty.
Even at the idea stage, you have to be strong. Everyone has an opinion, and they will tell you your idea sucks or to iterate features to their liking. But you have to be focused enough to know when to let the good advice in or block out the noise so you can stay true to your vision.
People think Silicon Valley is a place where money grows on trees, but the reality is raising funds is really hard, and if you're building hardware, you need a large amount of upfront capital to get your product to market. The pitching process is a long, relentless, hard slog where finding the right investor is like finding the right person to marry -- you might have to date hundreds before you find the right match. And even if you do get past the funding stage, you shouldn't be celebrating as that's when the real hard work starts -- you have to make it happen, investors want their return.
Start-up meltdowns happen all the time in Silicon Valley, they are just not caught on national TV. Mine was. Tune in tonight at 10pm on Bravo to see the sh-t hit the fan.
