There’s the need for a sort of… naive is probably the wrong word, but a type of optimism that is more than just being positive, a type of optimism that means yo

There’s the need for a sort of… naive is probably the wrong word, but a type of optimism that is more than just being positive, a type of optimism that means you believe deep in your soul that your startup is going to succeed no matter what, and that optimism doesn’t allow for differentiating between internal and external presentation — there’s just optimism. There are founders who will only accept defeat when they are physically unable to make payroll or even when payments to employees start bouncing: that’s bad behaviour but it’s the sort of behaviour that is closely related to the same type of behaviour required to succeed. I completely agree that they would ideally be more open with prospects, people they’re interviewing etc. but I am not sure if that’s something we can expect to get. I spend a lot of time looking at the workatastartup website listings and (perhaps naively) I feel like I can identify which companies are flying by the seat of their pants (and therefore might one day wake up and realise “oh shit, we have to fire the new guy”) vs. the ones that I could expect to disclose to me a few months in advance when things are looking dicey. As applicants, we have to assume the worst and plan accordingly.