When you have the right pedigree and connections. Or when you fail with other people’s money, and you lack remorse. A comment I just lived on Fred Wilson’s blog:
Once you’re in a certain, elite, circle, failure isn’t fatal anymore. This is true in many fields where connections and pedigrees are important and there are high barriers to entry. NFL coaches, for example. How many times to you see a coach get canned and not land on his feet at another team (though sometimes as an assistant or position coach)? Not too often.
Another field where this has been true is money management. Think you’d be kicked out of the industry for losing two thirds of your investors’ money in ‘08? Think again. I can think of a couple of guys at least who did that and are still professionally managing money.
I imagine something similar is the case when it comes to venture-backed start-ups. Lots of start-ups fail. That you once got venture backing probably counts for more on your CV than that your start-up failed. I remember back in ‘99 a magazine (Vanity Fair?) asked the founder of one of those Internet bike delivery companies if he was worried of failure. “Why?”, he asked. “If this doesn’t work out, at least I’ll have a great essay for my b-school application” (not verbatim; just my recollection).
For that matter, the founder profiled in the great documentary Startup.com is running a public company now.
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