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Great quote here: "The margins rarely get better, but the sunk costs get worse."

The problem is that this "business fundamentals" thinking gets overshadowed by VC funding culture among startups, which aim for rapid growth, margins be damned. You end up with businesses that are really not sustainable at all climbing over each other in hopes of getting funding instead of looking for markets and business models where they can operate like normal, profitable businesses.

This is something I think a lot of founders miss: a healthy startup should provide margin for your time, your emotional and physical health, your relationships, your sanity, and your integrity. A lot of this will come from your profit margin!

I was just at a startup showcase and a common theme in many healthy startups was how much of a stress it put on the relationships of the founders.

I feel like we need more of a conversation about these indirect effects of startups on founders

I enjoy Justin's fresh approach to a lot of these business topics. When you hear "margin" you immediately think of profit, never your personal margin. Funny because you need personal margin to actually sit back, let your mind calm down and allow new business ideas / strategy etc. to float up.

Good Businesses Have Margin