Most companies require 10-15 years to get to something meaningful. You, as a founder, will spend that time to grow, grasp and finally master your product and your market. Your company will become very similar to you and so will your culture.
I have been extremely fascinated by the idea of building something that doesn’t have an expiration date. Call it IPO, exit. Nothing.
Going long allows you to always make the right decision for your customers and most importantly, for your people. It forces you to always prioritise what will make them successful and have the time to keep doing it over and over. And with that comes an operational and financial discipline in running your company that it’s difficult to build otherwise.
The aspect that I love the most about it? Having the time to really build something great, whatever it takes in terms of months or years.
It took me a while to understand that this would probably the best thing I would enjoy as an entrepreneur in my future venture. Going long.