In this TechCrunch article, Bill Gurley, General Partner at Benchmark Capital, tells CEOs and CFOs of startups that now is the time to conserve coin and hunker down.
Also in the article, the following points are made by a CEO who went through major layoffs during the dot bomb crash in 2000:
- You don’t realize how fast things spin out of control. There are self‐reinforcing negative affects in a downturn.
- Don’t spend money until you have to
- Better to be “late to the party” than to be early and run out of money
- Line item review of the budget every month (legal, accounting, everything)
- Not just a CEO mindset, but a company mindset
- Create 2 or 3 different burn scenarios - know at any point in time how many months of cash is left.
October 13th, 2008 at 9:25 am
What does this mean for the likes of Zillow? Any plans to give up the free pop, plush offices with a view of Elliot Bay, or the half days?