Mother Goose for start-ups

The numbers link to tweets where I originally posted these.

1.
Jack & Jill
Went up the hill
To fill their Series A
Jack came down
With 100 mill
& Jill got jack.
Y'know, woman entrepreneur.

2.
Twinkle, twinkle, start-up star,
O M G, you've come so far!
You got valuations sky-high,
But boss, where's the R O I?

3.
Humpty Dumpty built a mall
Humpty had discounts for 1 & all
All of the VCs gave him a call
& Humpty exited & had a ball

4.
Little Ms Muffet
Went to the buffet
To get herself some food
This kept her in office
She don't know what time off is
Start-up culture, dude

5.
Rock-a-bye baby: new biz opp
When the wind blows, sales will rock
The bubble'll pop, values'll fall
The investor's problem, not mine at all

6.
This little app's on the market
This little app's made a crore
The little app finds roast beef
So it only works in Bangalore

7.
I'm from IIM-B
Short & stout
Got a Twitter handle
Gimme a shout
That's my Uber calling
Gotta get out
VCs want to buy me out!

8.
Mary had a little lamb
(Her chef was cordon bleu)
Then bought a golden Mercedes Benz
Successful I P O!

9.
Here we go round the mulberry bush
The mulberry bush
The mulberry bush
Here we go round the mulberry bush
Investor meeting this morning

10.
Baba BlackWolf
Have you any wool?
Haanji haanji
Round 3's full
Some for the VC's eyes
Some for the dames
Some for carpet
In my private plane

11.
There was a crooked man
and he went a crooked mile
He found a crooked sixpence
And said, Woohoo! Capital!

12.
Oranges and lemons
Sold for a penny
For the e-grocers
Are so many
The grass is greener
On the e-com side
No it's not career
Suicide

13.
There was an old woman
Who lived in a shoe
Because she thought bootstrapping
Was the only thing to do

14.
Oh, The grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And changed his business plan

15.
See, saw, Marjorie Daw
We shall have a new master
They booted out the founder CEO
Because he couldn't make profits faster

16.
CEO CEO
Where have you been?
I've been to London
To pitch to the Queen
CEO CEO
How did you fare?
She got her grandson
To throw me downstairs

17.
Jack be nimble
Jack you prick
Jack must pivot
Really quick
You aimed high
But you jumped low
And now the investors
Want profits to show

18.
Pat-a-cake pat-a-cake
Programmer man
Make me an app
As fast as you can
Code it & load it
And mark it ™
Put it in the AppStore
By 10 pm

19.
Little Bo Peep has lost her peeps
& can't tell where to hire more
She offered SOPs & late-night drops
But they all want to work offshore

20.
Little Boy Blue, pick up the phone
Clients are mad, systems are down
Where is the boy who fixes the F-ups?
In a cafe, pitching his start-up

21.
Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner
Coding his new API
"It's Uber for [X]
It's better than sex..
..I think. Wouldn't know, would I?

22.
Two co-founders
Sitting on a wall
One named Peter
One named Paul
Fly away Peter
Fly away Paul
Professional managers
Are taking all the calls

23.
@ashonindia had a firm
A I, A I, Yo
Her software passed the Turing Test
A I, A I, Yo
With a Round 1 here & a Round 2 there
When's the IPO?

24.
Solomon Gru
Idea: Mon
Biz plan: Tue
Angel funds: Wed
Launch: Thu
Bills: Fri
Bankrupt: Sat
Jobhunt: Sun
This is the end Of Solomon Gru

25.
Bold Mama Hubbard
Went to the Board
To fetch the founders a bonus
But when she got there
The board was like "Meh"
& so the founders had none

26.
One, two
An idea! New!
Three four
Knock at PE doors
Five, six
Bloody dicks
Seven, eight
Harness your hate
Nine, ten
Start again

27.
Hickory dickory dock
Overvalued stock
The P:E ratio's 10:1
Where T F is my gun?
Hockery dorkery dick

Forgiving

That moment when what you think about something important — a person you admire, a job, a friendship — changes, drastically and irrevocably.

When you look back at it, cushioned from the pain by years of distance, you realise that it wasn't, after all, a particular deed or word that made the difference; you see that you had been suppressing the knowledge that things weren't the way you wanted them to be, and what that word, that deed, did was throw a harsh light on what you'd been hiding from yourself.

It is acceptance of the loss of illusion.

And then, all those years later, you start forgiving that person, and, more importantly, yourself.

When you accept that it was your perhaps unrealistic expectations, needs, desires, that played a role, when you accept your own fault, then maybe you'll find that that schism isn't as unbridgeable as you thought it was.

It is comfort — small comfort — when you're struggling with more recent turmoil, to know that one day you can reach that point. It would be nice to be able to get there more quickly. Ideally without ageing. : ) But that would take more internal evolution than some of us can manage without the help of the years.