What happens when it doesn’t work out?
At BetaKit, we cover fast-raising and fast-scaling companies. It’s the nature of the industry. But for every fast-scaling startup successfully chasing that exit, there are five more that have it in the palm of their hand, only to see it slip away.
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At 22, Pablo Srugo had only one goal: to “become insanely rich.” At 25, he thought he had made it with his Ottawa-based startup Gymtrack. Now a partner at Mistral VC, he’s going to tell us exactly what went wrong and what he learned from the experience.
“This was mine. This was done. I was going to be the next Steve Jobs, I was going to be rich—everything was happening. And now they took it away.”
Pablo Srugo
Mistral VC
It is a story Srugo has told before, with equal measures of candour and perspective, and I appreciate the bluntness through which he’s able to parse his mindset during these events—both in the moment and years later. While some moments are truly cringe-inducing in retrospect, I would be hard-pressed to find many unwilling to acknowledge the same about themselves at 22.
I wish more founders would share such cautionary tales with the next generation of entrepreneurs. It’s something Srugo is regularly platforming on his own podcast, The Product Market Fit Show.
Perhaps the most interesting part is the advice a more mature Srugo would give himself were he to start over. But first, you’ll have to hear about how it all went wrong.
What happens when it doesn’t work out? Let’s dig in.
The BetaKit Podcast is hosted by Douglas Soltys & Rob Kenedi. Produced & edited by Jess Schmidt. Feature image courtesy Gymtrack.