Better to fail fast, than to drag it out

Bambi Francisco Roizen · August 4, 2008 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/340

Founders Fund's Singerman says learn how to adapt and move on

Brian Singerman is an angel investor and a VC at Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based VC, started by former PayPal founders, Slide, Facebook, Zivity, Quantcast, and now Clickable (with the just-announced $14.5 million round raised). In this segment of "Lessons learned," Brian raises important points for entrepreneurs, specifically the virtue of failing fast. "There's nothing wrong with failing fast," Brian said. The problem is that people wait too long to realize they have a failed business model, or spread themselves too thin to ever focus on one business model, he suggested. "Pick one [business model]," he said. "If it doesn’t work. There’s nothing wrong with failing fast."

Brian also says that entrepreneurs have to be willing to be flexible. "Be willing to adapt to what your customers are saying," he said. "Be willing to adapt, and you may find some gems within your product."

Watch the interview for Brian's advice on why big, lengthy PPTs are a waste of time, and what to expect from a VC meeting.

Bambi Francisco Roizen

Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author and award-winning journalist.

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Joined Vator on April 21, 2008

Zivity is a community powered showcase of female beauty.

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Joined Vator on July 5, 2007

We are company founders first and investor second: we have built companies from the ground up, including PayPal, Facebook, Napster, Plaxo, Palantir Technologies, and Clarium Capital. We have experience from concept to realization, from shared offices to public offerings. Every stage of the company creation process is familiar to us, from finding seed capital, to building defensible products, scaling up the organization, and realizing lasting value for employees and shareholders.

Our current investments include Facebook, Slide, Geni, Powerset, IronPort Systems, Zivity, Quantcast, and Project Agape. Our fund is $50 million and we focus on investments in early-stage consumer Internet companies. We typically invest $500,000 - $1 million per investment. At the end of 2007, we raised $220 million for The Founders Fund II.

Slide

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Joined Vator on April 4, 2008

Slide is the largest personal media network in the world, reaching 144 million unique global viewers each month and more than 30 percent of the U.S. Internet audience. We help people express themselves and tell stories through personalized photos and videos created on Slide.com and viewed anywhere on the web or desktop.

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Launched in 2005 and founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Slide is backed by Mayfield Fund, Blue Run Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.