What this teaches
Altman on the pattern where startups treat closing a round as the achievement, coast afterward, and die: fundraising success is a lagging indicator that buys time, nothing more.
Why it matters
Names the most common failure mode immediately after a successful raise.
Key lessons
- Closing a round is the starting line, not a milestone
- The habits of the fundraise (networking, hype) are the opposite of the habits of building
- Momentum lost post-raise is brutally hard to recover
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