Thanks for the thoughtful response.

Regarding our situation: the company ran for about 4 years. We raised a couple rounds and had customers like MTV and Sony, so it wasn't a total flop or anything.

I'm not actively hurting -- I've had two companies since then, which both quickly failed without funding or the drama of extensive hiring & firing. But I do talk to lots of early-stage founders, so I often reflect on that first failure when I see it happening in others.

I also see the stories in the PR circuit which don't quite ring true, but which are still some of the only guidance new founders receive. Like yours, my experiences suggest that reality is a lot messier and more ambiguous than that.