This will probably fail.
(And that’s the point)
What is “This” and why is it broken?
“This” is a company. Yours, mine, the pig’s. Odds are, it will fail just like 90% of them do.
How I Broke This is about those failures:
the founders who torched millions
the executives who made the wrong call
the investors who watched it all go sideways
We share their stories not to gawk at the wreckage, but to learn from it - and laugh about it - because failure, like humor, is a brilliant teacher.
Who’s How I Broke This for?
Founders who’ve built — and subsequently destroyed — shareholder value
Side-hustlers wondering if quitting the day job is brave or just plain stupid
Desk jockeys dreaming of escape from corporate captivity
Investors, advisors, and coaches who want to seem smarter in front of the people actually building shit
How is this affiliated with the Entrepreneurial Excellence Exam and the University of Entrepreneurial Excellence?
The University of Entrepreneurial Excellence (UEE) is a fully un-accredited institution devoted to the study of building businesses.
Each week, a new UEE module dissects a vital part of entrepreneurship: from fundraising to team building, blitzscaling to watching it all burn to the ground.
The UEE administers the Entrepreneurial Excellence Exam (E³) as the culmination of your studies. Every week, an E³ sample question appears on LinkedIn. Answers are revealed and points awarded in the How I Broke This newsletter.
Think of all this as the love child of Y Combinator and The Simpsons moonlighting as an MBA student at Faber College. You know… educational.
Negotiatoribus Maxime Seriis
Who’s behind this eventual failure?
I’m John. I bootstrapped a company from my bedroom to over £30 million in annual sales. If that doesn’t quite sound like your definition of failure, wait ‘til you hear the stories we have to tell.
Mine starts when a major newspaper declared I’d made “the dumbest move EVER on Dragons’ Den,” a badge of honor I continue to wear proudly.
Sign up for How I Broke This and join a growing community of entrepreneurs failing forward one dumbest move EVER at a time.
What’s with the pig?
That’s Porky McBust, our piggy bank mascot. Cracked. Empty. Bereft of bacon.
Why Mr. McBust? Because nothing says “broken dreams and busted startups” quite like a smashed savings pot. And frankly, he’s cuter than a logo of a founder burning their last dollar.
Were you on Shark Tank?
Kinda. It’s called Shark Tank in the USA and Middle East, Dragons’ Den in the UK & Canada, Die Höhle der Löwen in Germany, Løvens Hule in Norway, and as every serious scholar knows, 당신의 장수 in South Korea.
These substantial geographic disparities raise a very serious philosophical question: Who wins in a fight - the shark or the dragon?
Let’s break it down.
According to the laws of physics, it is impossible for a dragon to deploy its signature weapon - breath of fire - in a shark’s underwater habitat, so in this case the shark likely massacres a diving dragon.
Of course, those same laws preclude the shark from flying, at which point, as it jumps from its ocean safety to attack the dragon skimming the surface, the dragon unleashes its barbecue flame and everyone feasts on grilled shark meat.
So really, it’s a toss up.
Whichever beast wins, this conundrum demonstrates the type of rigorous intellectual debate you’ll encounter at the University of Entrepreneurial Excellence.
Sign up for the How I Broke This newsletter today, join our entrepreneurial community and test your business-building mettle with the Entrepreneurial Excellence Exam.
