Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

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.

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