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I can tell from your post that you will absolutely hate ceding control to a VC I would recommend finding a co-founder who has similar ideals but can handle the parts you don’t like doing, and has business experience. You’ll get much further without losing real control
Main question to ask is whether you have considered the overall potential threats to the business, and what you’re trading off against by not taking VC; and if you are comfortable with those risks and tradeoffs.
There’s no universal answer, but there are better answers depending on the business / those risks. For example if your business is at increasing risk of a better-funded competitor eating your lunch, a bigger war chest might be prudent.
Keep in mind that there are a substantial set of skills you will need to develop, and responsibilities you will need to make time for, when taking VC investment. Not necessarily a negative, and for me it was desirable. Fundraising, managing investors (eg updating the board quarterly), hiring faster, and scaling the product faster. I’m hand waving here, but as you’ve guessed it’s likely not just take money and keep on operating exactly the same way. Big checks will come with certain expectations, and meeting them can dramatically change the culture and lifestyle you’re trying to achieve.
Lastly, there are ~boutique VC firms out there that specialize in smaller SaaS with good trajectory. The VC that is knocking may be the wrong match for your goals, but it’s OK to shop around a little.
Quick thoughts but feel free to find/dm me if you’d like any addl advice or anecdata. And, congrats!
There are two things I look at when raising VC.
1. What's the TAM of my product and will a capital injection get me there faster?
2. Do I actually want to raise capital or do I want to work at my own pace?
The last couple of years (after Reforge), I've just been working at my own pace -- healing from my last VC run.
Building a bootstrapped business (i.e. NOT taking venture capital) is a rare skill. I would keep on building without outside capital if you can continue to build growth. If you hit a ceiling (without growth) then you may want to consider looking for/accepting outside capital. As soon as you accept VC funding, there are basically 3 outcomes for your company. Getting acquired, going public (if that's an option where yo…
> If you hit a ceiling (without growth) then you may want to consider looking for/accepting outside capital.
One other option at this point is to sell the whole business. For bootstrappers allergic to VC or lacking the drive/skill to scale further/faster, can be a nice outcome.
Seems to be a growing number of firms specializing in small saas acquisitions too (Tiny Capital comes to mind - no affiliation).
But that’s a gamble. If you think the current MRR is sustainable then I would personally stick with it (I assume you’re a solopreneur)
https://www.saastr.com/the-10x-rule-what-raising-1-of-ventur...
The immediate impact is that that MRR that you have is no longer eligible for dividend payment. Expectation will be that you reinvest all income for growth until you exit (acq, IPO).
On the positive side, you’ll get to explore how big your idea can really become. And with much less worries about immediate cashflows than you otherwise would have if you were to grow your headcount.
tldr; think big or enjoy your small scale success. (As others have pointed out, absolutely nothing wrong with the latter.)
If I was to take VC funding again I would combine it with taking a big slug off the table personally to derisk things. For this to make sense you would probably need to scale the business quite a bit more before that becomes viable.