Choices you have with what to do when your startup gets successful enough to consider your "exit"
A) sell
B) IPO
C) stay the course
If you've taken investment at any point, especially VC, you are pretty bound to do A or B. Your investors want to see the company succeed in many ways, but they are also looking for returns at the end of the day. Large ones. So if the opportunity comes along, your board will probably make you take it.
So C is really only an option if you're 100% bootstrapped. That's pretty rare these days. Even if you are, the excitement, challenge, and general "buzz" you get from being a startup founder is going to pass at some point. Either the company stagnates or you get too big to be nimble.
The author seems to be just lamenting the passing of time, that he's not as excited and hungry as when he first started. In most cases, nothing you do is going to bring that innocence back.
A) sell B) IPO C) stay the course
If you've taken investment at any point, especially VC, you are pretty bound to do A or B. Your investors want to see the company succeed in many ways, but they are also looking for returns at the end of the day. Large ones. So if the opportunity comes along, your board will probably make you take it.
So C is really only an option if you're 100% bootstrapped. That's pretty rare these days. Even if you are, the excitement, challenge, and general "buzz" you get from being a startup founder is going to pass at some point. Either the company stagnates or you get too big to be nimble.
The author seems to be just lamenting the passing of time, that he's not as excited and hungry as when he first started. In most cases, nothing you do is going to bring that innocence back.