WFIO moments feel like dying, but your startup can always move forward. With ingenuity and grit, you will find a way out of it.Ben Horowitz’s WFIO moment: In September 1999, Horowitz co-founded LoudcloudAfter the dot-com bubble, the company ran out of money in 2002No private investors would touch them, they couldn’t raise money from anybody. They decided to go public, which was insane at the time. The move felt like cutting your limbs but they found a way through.The company ultimately raised money from public markets and survived.

It’s Rarely as Bad as It Seems

If you are building a sufficiently ambitious startup with an intended massive impact, you will have WFIO moments.

It’s only over when you decide to quit.

WFIO – “We’re f*cked it’s over”There are many ways this can happen:<ul><li>A legal ruling goes against you</li><li>Apple refuses to approve your application unless you remove your best feature</li><li>Big tech company launches the same as or substantially similar product</li><li>Your most strategic customers stop doing business all at the same time</li></ul>

Your Startup Will Face Multiple WFIO Moments…COUNT ON IT

<ul><li>Get it out of your head and onto paper; writing is the best way to calm your “monkey mind“. Writing forces you to stress test the clarity of thinking.</li><li>Share your worries with trusted friends from outside the company, especially if they have experience with WFIO moments in their startups. Don’t make all decisions by yourself.</li><li>Create victory psychology for your team: It is about getting all of the most innovative people in the same room to work with the angle of the problem</li><li>Focus on the path through the obstacles instead of obstacles themselves</li><li>Face the pain head-on</li></ul>

5 Key Practices to Take Control of Your Psychology

Your startup will face multiple WFIO moments on the path to greatness...COUNT ON IT. But that doesn’t mean you should let these moments get inside your head. In this lesson of greatness, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE discusses how every startup team MUST be prepared to take the initiative in the crucible of the WFIO moments they will inevitably face. The bright side? You can use these horrible situations as defining moments to show everyone that your startup is destined to defeat the impossible.

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Leadership & Management

Host Mike Maples Jr from venture capital firm FLOODGATE offers lessons from the startup super performers—BEFORE they were successful—featuring interviews with some of Silicon Valley’s most legendary entrepreneurs and thought leaders, including Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Nextdoor co-founder Sarah Leary, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger, and more.

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