NFX releases “The Second Time Founders Manual”
NFX, the San Francisco-based early stage venture capital firm, has released “The Second Time Founders Manual,” a collection of essays and resources for Founders starting their second, third, or subsequent company.
The collection includes five key advantages, but 14 common disadvantages, such as:
- Underestimating the Role of Luck: Thinking you were “right” last time, leading to not iterating or pivoting fast enough.
- Not Asking “Stupid” Questions: VCs and employees trust you more now, which can make you overconfident and not ask the right questions.
- Raising Too Much Money, Too Soon: Skipping to the end without building the proper foundations, leading to the wrong culture for creating a disruptive company again.
- Status Anxiety: Jumping back in too soon, or in the wrong place, out of anxiety to get appreciation or kudos. It’s a more common trap than most want to admit.
- Missing Your Operational Blindspots: Your past successes become blinders. We all have mis-aligned mental models created by wherever we were before.
