My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#1

Post by bsmth » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 5:37 PM UTC

My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story
old.reddit.com

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#2

Post by ooterness » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 6:15 PM UTC

TL;DR: Founder had healthy startup, accepts VC money, acts surprised when VC wants rapid growth and returns.

Who could have predicted this?

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#3

Post by apodolny » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 6:22 PM UTC

A little frustrated by the ambiguity of the $100M in the post. Is that capital raised, ARR, GMV? Makes a big difference in terms of understanding what kind of business they built.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#4

Post by charcircuit » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 6:22 PM UTC

>All in all we went from $0 to $100m to $0 because I followed the advice of the VCs.

It's not the VCs' fault that OP failed at scaling his business. If you are getting VC funding you will need to be able to scale up.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#5

Post by monero-xmr » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 6:23 PM UTC

There’s a lot of information missing. All of his problems were caused by VC? Why did he raise VC if he had 7 figure revenue? 5 years explained in 6 paragraphs. I agree that hiring bigco people for a startup is a mistake, but otherwise you can’t learn anything here.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#6

Post by powera » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 6:25 PM UTC

A riddle: how do you know that an anonymous Reddit post is exaggerated?

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#7

Post by lijok » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 6:25 PM UTC

Many such cases

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#8

Post by djoldman » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 6:26 PM UTC

Honest question: if you sell 50%, then why do what the VCs tell you to do?

Beyond gaining some sort of reputation for not doing what your investors want, is there anything else?

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#9

Post by lijok » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 6:29 PM UTC

djoldman wrote: post #8

Honest question: if you sell 50%, then why do what the VCs tell you to do? Beyond gaining some sort of reputation for not doing what your investors want, is there anything else?

Term sheets, tranched funds

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#10

Post by ohgodplsno » Sat, Aug 12, 2023, 6:31 PM UTC

djoldman wrote: post #8

Honest question: if you sell 50%, then why do what the VCs tell you to do? Beyond gaining some sort of reputation for not doing what your investors want, is there anything else?

> your articles of incorporation state that you can do whatever you want if you own >50%

Then VCs won't invest in you, put a bunch of cash into a competitor, bleed you dry and either let you die or force you to reincorporate in a way they can have ownership.

VCs are a cancer. They want to spread and grow, at any cost.