Musketeer as Entrepreneur (Part 7): Conclusion

In the previous installment, I left D'Artagnan and his newly-formed team at a port on the English Channel as they prepared to start their venture. It is a long, convoluted and entertaining story that has some parallels to the typical life of a tech startup.

Early in the story, I mentioned that one of three musketeers, Athos, would be a competitor to D'Artagnan's efforts to restore Charles II. They don't encounter each other until mid-way through the adventure at a time when Athos was in peril of losing his objective and also his life, and D'Artagnan was sure he had failed and was not assured of his own safety.

In the case of D'Artagnan, the reason for this low point was that, while he and his team brilliantly achieved the first objective of making off with Monk, Charles II did not respond to the "gift" as he expected. In other words, the customer wasn't buying what he was selling, despite its obvious great value. What startup hasn't dealt with this very problem? Despite feeling in his heart that the customer was making a grave error, he had little choice to behave as if the customer was right -- and they're always right, or so it's said. Instead of accepting the "product" D'Artagnan wished to sell, Charles instead demanded that D'Artagnan provide a custom "service". Products and services are very different things, and D'Artagnan knew this, but he needed to salvage something or risk losing his and Planchet's capital.

I am being deliberately vague on what actually transpired since I don't want to give any spoilers to those who might want to read the book. Suffice it to say, that the service D'Artagnan was asked to provide was successful, and much to his surprise he did eventually generate revenue that was in line with his revenue plan. That last fact alone tells us that this story is fiction; no startup meets its revenue plan, missing either on the low side, getting the time-frame wrong or, in the minority of cases, exceeding their wildest expectations. But getting it exact? No way.

Planchet's faith in the D'Artagnan was amply rewarded, and so both investor and entrepreneur did quite well in the venture. The employee mercenaries did well, too, according to their modest expectations, but then D'Artagnan never did reveal just how much the venture actually netted. He made sure that none of them were around when he collected and then carried home the cash. This, too, is typical. No, not the secrecy, but that employees do not get rich in startups; the salary they earn is in lieu of risky equity. Founders and investors also conspire to keep the lion's share of the winnings.

So with that I'll end this lengthy series. I'll leave you with a passage from Dumas that sums up the qualities of D'Artagnan and Planchet. Perhaps he did so as counterpoint to the comedy he made of their behaviour and interactions in telling their story, and from which I liberally quoted in this series. Dumas gets the last word.

They who have pronounced Don Quixote mad because he rode out to the conquest of an empire with nobody but Sancho his squire, and they who have pronounced Sancho mad because he accompanied his master in his attempt to conquer the said empire, - they certainly will have no hesitation in extending the same judgment to D'Artagnan and Planchet. And yet the first passed for one of the most subtle spirits among the astute spirits of the court of France. As to the second, he had acquired by good right the reputation of having one of the longest heads among the grocers of the Rue des Lombards; consequently of Paris, and consequently of France. Now, to consider these two men from the point of view from which you would consider other men, and the means by the aid of which they contemplated to restore a monarch to his throne, compared with other means, the shallowest brains of the country where brains are most shallow must have revolted against the presumptuous madness of the lieutenant and the stupidity of his associate. Fortunately, D'Artagnan was not a man to listen to the idle talk of those around him, or to the comments that were made on himself. He had adopted the motto, "Act well, and let people talk." Planchet, on his part had adopted this, "Act and say nothing." It resulted from this, that, according to the custom of all superior geniuses, these two men flattered themselves, _intra pectus_, with being in the right against all who found fault with them.