[HN Gopher] Raising money fucked me up
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Raising money fucked me up
Author : yakkomajuri
Score : 48 points
Date : 2026-01-17 18:29 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.yakkomajuri.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.yakkomajuri.com)
| moralestapia wrote:
| Imagine betting on someone and xe writes this ...
| teiferer wrote:
| Then I know they are capable of deep self-reflection. A good
| thing. Any founder without such thoughts and some point or
| another is either lying to you or will eventually fail big
| time.
| globalnode wrote:
| if i bet on someone and they wrote this id know my money was
| spent well
| allenrb wrote:
| Nothing about this struck me as a sign that money wasn't well-
| invested. From the headline, I was picturing "we raised and
| then I blew it in Vegas".
|
| Nothing wrong with admitting to uncertainty and insecurity. I
| mean, there are two types of people -- those who suffer doubt
| sometimes, and those who don't admit it. Give me the first kind
| any time.
| jbs789 wrote:
| Finding the right psychologist/coach/founder to chat this over
| with will probably do you and the company wonders.
| yakkomajuri wrote:
| Hey, author here. Totally agree on how helpful these people
| are. I have a psychologist and also some great mentors. This
| doesn't make you immune to things like I wrote about but helps
| you process and get over them when they happen.
|
| As a side note, I'm in a much better mental space now, largely
| due to facing these things straight on. Things are good, and
| I'm motivated and sharp!
| jbs789 wrote:
| Awesome to hear. Best of luck!
| quantumgarbage wrote:
| Loved it, understanding and working through your vulnerabilities
| is super hard but ultra rewarding. Bold but very altruistic move
| to publish this
| AstroBen wrote:
| I think everyone would seriously benefit from learning poker. I
| used to play professionally and the idea of looking at things as
| probabilistic bets, and in terms of expected value is so deeply
| rooted in my mind
|
| Investments are bets. Most sane investors aren't putting it all
| on one thing
|
| Startups are bets
|
| Applying for jobs. Sales. Dating. Health. Basically everything
|
| You risk $X money and time for a payoff of $Y that comes Z%
|
| You can make the best decision and have a bad outcome because
| there are so many unknowns. This isn't chess
|
| You can play everything wrong and still hit it out of the park
|
| I mean this is one of the range of outcomes that could've
| happened. You can't declare yourself a success or failure from
| one project
|
| Just keep making good decisions and don't risk it all, and you'll
| more than likely end up fine
| teiferer wrote:
| > You risk $X money and time for a payoff of $Y that comes Z%
|
| Unlike in poker where you know those 3 numbers if you are
| paying attention, in real life you know only X, and sometimes
| not even that. The rest is a guessing game, and that estimation
| is the hard part.
| altmanaltman wrote:
| I read about mathematical expectation in a poker book for the
| first time a long time ago and it's really an interesting way
| to think about the world. In real life, it's a bit different
| though since there are other factors than just raw percentages
| like poker hands. For example, you could do everything right
| and still fail while someone else (like a nepo hire) can do
| everything wrong and still succeed.
|
| Life's odds are rigged.
| mhogers wrote:
| One of my favorite star trek scenes:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4A-Ml8YHyM
| taurath wrote:
| Expectations that we hold inside of ourselves can be a really
| difficult echo of identities we tried fantasizing about when
| growing up and as an adult. We want to do well, we want the
| approval, we want the validation.
|
| The anxiety over expectations can kill you. It's self abuse -
| people (investors, bosses, spouses) don't invest in you for your
| anxiety driven productivity, they do it because of who you are
| outside of that worry. It's hard to replace it if you consider it
| your motor. Let the desire to do well and good stay, but let the
| fear of others disappointment go, and the fantasy that we can
| control those outcomes by squeezing every last drop out of
| ourselves.
| teiferer wrote:
| Can you separate "who you are" from that worry? Seems to me
| it's a part of you and you wouldn't be you without it, for
| better and worse.
| taurath wrote:
| Identities shift over time whether we intend it or not. Who
| you were at 5, or 10 is not who you are at 20, 30, 40. We all
| pick up baggage, trinkets, burdens, and experiences.
|
| One worries because it was a helpful strategy compared to not
| worrying, but some (like me very specifically) can get
| attached to that worry to the detriment of picking up other
| mechanisms.
| arathis wrote:
| A wonderful and personally relevant thing to read.
| tptacek wrote:
| Without trying to be glib about it, this post sounds like a
| description of second-system syndrome, applied to
| entrepreneurship. It happens to all of us.
| didip wrote:
| When doing my own startup in the past, the biggest pain were:
| loneliness and inexplicable paranoia. Which then lead to anxiety.
|
| This, when unchecked, can lead to self inflicted, unnecessary
| pressure on myself. And failure to meet the impossible deadlines,
| created downward spiral.
|
| I think this is normal, everyone went through the same thing.
| That's why some VCs filter for megalomaniacs, zealots, or people
| who have no idea what pain is, because the journey is insane
| arduous.
|
| The pain magnifies if the startup is located in VHCOL. Every
| month a whale appears and eat a big chunk of your runway. Who
| wouldn't have anxiety?
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(page generated 2026-01-17 23:00 UTC)