Bijan Sabet

A Helping Hand

I’ve been meanging to write this post for the last few months. But I’m struggling with the best way to do it.

So here goes.

I’m almost 40. I don’t consider myself old (denial?) but I’ve seen good markets and down markets. A few times over. After college, when I moved to Silicon Valley in the early 90’s the market wasn’t great at all. Then it was very interesting. Then it was amazing. Then it was ugly. Really ugly. I was there from 1992-2001.

When I moved to Boston in 2001 it was a tough market and only got worse in 2002 in many ways. Then in 2005 Boston/Cambridge started coming back with tons of great startups. And we have seen big companies like Google & Microsoft investing big time here in beantown. And now we are back in a down market. The cycle continues.

But the thing I can’t stand and it seems partciularly true of late is how some people turn inward or become really unwilling to give a helping hand when times are tough.

Suddenly calls go unanswered. Or patience grows thin. Sympathy goes away. We start things like FuckedCompany. Or some folks will only make introductions if you promise them something in return. Or people start asking (demanding?) compensation for something as innocent as advice.

I noticed this behavior with some folks in the last crash and I’m starting to see it again.

So I just want to remind everyone. We gotta help each other out. It’s not just about personal karma but it’s important for the entire startup & business ecosystem

And it’s especially true in times like this.

When we are in a down market we need to be more helpful to each other, not less.