Your company is not your company

 Hang in there, brave founders. Funding winters, and Tech layoffs on one side. News of reckless kids driving their companies to the ground on the other. 
 
A lot of heavy stuff is floating in the air, and on our minds. Before we get to them, let's blow off some steam, and imagine an acceleration of Karma, shall we?

                                                      
 

Karma at the speed of action - Scene 1

She had just completed an interrogation, and it had not gone as planned. Why did the law have to come behind her, of all people? Yes, the product was far from perfect, but she would have turned it around in a few months. It was not as if she had wanted to cheat investors, some of whom were her grandfather's age. 
As she got into her car, her ruminations were interrupted by a phone call. It was her wealth manager, the last of her staff she could still afford.
"You are not going to like this."
"As if anything could surprise me these days."
"Remember the new cryptocurrency we invested in your portfolio?"
"What do you mean, remember?"
"Yes, sorry, the thing busted"
"Wasn't this founded by that nerd from XIT?"
"Yes, sadly, he diverted money, took some risky bets and lost them all."
 
********

Karma at the speed of action - Scene 2

“How could blood test results be so off from two testing centers?” 
 
He was seething with rage, and talking to whoever would care to listen. 
 
“And to think my sister almost died because of this erroneous diagnosis… That is the problem when startups try to disrupt spaces they don’t understand. 
 
Not like my FTX exchange. I mastered numbers at XIT. Then I mastered the money game. My exchange will be the biggest game of them all…but first, to save my sister…”
 
*********
 
                                                  

Owner or caretaker?

The Law recognizes a Company as a separate person, with powers and agency like a person, executed via its human officers. This concept has long been known as the “Corporate Veil” - the same one that prevents company liability from leaking to the owners.
 
Founders birth the company. They create a business model and breathe life into it. They seek employees, investors and other stakeholders who believe in the company’s vision, and contribute to its success. 
 
                                                             
 
Most of the journey is about creating an environment of growth, nurturing the good, weeding out the bad, honing the specialness of the person. (Sounds eerily similar to parenting?!) One of the biggest things we learn as founders is also to let go. We have to let go of doing work ourselves, of holding on to our personal philosophies, and let go of the notion that the company belongs to us (even if legally, it does).
 
It is this metaphorical separation that sows the seeds for good corporate governance and disincentives actions that serve personal interest. 
 
A fused identity hinders accountability, transparency and objectivity. Makes people believe that one of “my companies” can equally handle the money made from another of “my companies”. Or encourages the tendency to play with fire until consequences catch up.  

Your company is not your company

Founders, just like parents, make a lot of mistakes. It is a valid way of learning after all. Where it is a failure, and not  learning anymore, is when it destroys the offspring, for whom we work in the first place.
 
Imaginary role playing aside, justice is often meted out, slowly yet steadily. 
 
                                                  
 
If I were to wave a magic wand to help wannabe entrepreneurs learn from other’s mistakes, and avoid these costly ones themselves, it would be application of these words of Kahlil Gibran, to their companies:
 
“Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you”
 
What would be your magic wand?