No one cares. At least, not in Silicon Valley.
Unless it was a spectacular failure (i.e., lost > $20m+, or maybe these days, more).
This is mostly good news. You can start another, and if you did the right thing and tried your best, and didn’t lose too much money, everyone will be OK with that. You can also go join a different startup as a VP or in another role, and unless you make too big a deal about being a “founder” before, no one will care too much.
I worried about this all the time. More on that here: Don’t Worry About Losing All Your Investors’ Money – SaaStr
You shouldn’t. One of the wonderful things about Silicon Valley is no one holds a modest failure over your head.
