Gary Ong | October 1st, 2021

It is rather peculiar that we spend so much of our time thinking about money. I don’t mean it in the sense of financial planning. Rather, at some point, we start wanting to have more money for the sake of having money. Money stops becoming a representation of value and veers to the edge of idolatry.

For a startup, conversations in the public sphere always revolve around money. We celebrate the latest million or multimillion dollar Series A. We laud the billion dollar exits. We lament the billion dollar failures. Internally, money is also at the forefront. We have to optimize our burn rate, make sure our employees are fairly compensated, and make sure we can raise our next round of funding. It’s all money. At some point, it can feel like money is the only thing that matters and money is the only reason that matters.

In those moments, I like to take a step back to remind myself of this. It’s a quote from Sir Richard Branson:

Money is only useful for what it lets you do.

This might mean giving employees raises to show them they are appreciated in the company. It might mean losing money to endure failures on high risk experiments in the pursuit of value. It’s okay to let the numbers in the bank account go down every month so long as you are creating value in the real world. Focus less on money and focus more on value. Focus on creating value because in the end, that’s what a startup is: an organization that coverts capital to value. 

Image credit: Nattanan Kanchanaprat