Perhaps not from the outset. But if you put your mind to it, you can probably make a good guess about whether to cut and run after 12-18 months, and go for another lottery ticket.
This is a good point. Employees in particular have a unique perspective that investors are largely shielded from - they get to see the politics, the inefficiencies, and all the dark corners that are smoothed over or hidden from board decks.
I would imagine if you took a sample of failed companies, and interviewed their investors and their employees, in most cases the employees knew the ship was sinking long before the investors did.
