> Even if it's a $100 million business, if the company is not growing things will stall. People will start to leave. It'll be over.<p>I think it's time we (the people actually spending the sweat equity) start considering alternatives to these unreasonable expectations we blow up our companies to make them worth BILLIONS. That's an impossible task for all startups to accomplish and making it seem that it's possible is not good advice, IMHO.<p>Besides, people leave when they are ready to go, even in a successful startup. If you look at older companies, the founding teams left long ago because they got bored or rich, or both.