11–20 of 217 posts
It's not so much that "yes" means "no" but that VC's never actually say no, and it's easy to understand why. Whether or not they actually fund you, they always want you to think that they are going to fund you because that way they hedge their bets in two ways. First, if they learn new information (like if you suddenly start to get traction) they can change their minds without losing face. Second, and more importantl…
It's a good retrospective. It's clear the author learned, and improved. I didn't find anything new, it's got commentary on three common failure-to-raise modes. One thing I noticed about the tale was lots of focus on the product and MVP things. I think more efforts on Customer Development before MVP can provide a lot of traction signal to VC.
Money means yes, everything else means no.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is almost accurate. I would add one more thing: -> Have previous success (as founder or as employee) in same space -> funded
Yeah i was more so thinking of first time founders. Second time founder is a different thing, though I dont think early employees ("founding engineers") get much respect.
It's not so much that "yes" means "no" but that VC's never actually say no, and it's easy to understand why. Whether or not they actually fund you, they always want you to think that they are going to fund you because that way they hedge their bets in two ways. First, if they learn new information (like if you suddenly start to get traction) they can change their minds without losing face. Second, and more importantl…
"Everyone wants investment from venture capitalists." Am I the only one not living in this bubble. I cofounded a boostrap business. Having cash to hire and not have to work two jobs would sure be nice, but if I am raising it would not be to be on Forbes list, it would be to build an actual business. The vanity of those people sometimes.
"Everyone wants investment from venture capitalists". I have a bootstrapped side project, Tunnelmole, turning a small profit and growing at a slow and steady rate on its own. I'm the engineer so I only really pay hosting costs, which are covered by the revenue, although in the early days I had to cover this. While venture capital is an option, if it continues to grow, it's entirely possible the venture capitalists ma…
The longer you go w/o raising money the better your position can be.
"Everyone wants investment from venture capitalists". I have a bootstrapped side project, Tunnelmole, turning a small profit and growing at a slow and steady rate on its own. I'm the engineer so I only really pay hosting costs, which are covered by the revenue, although in the early days I had to cover this. While venture capital is an option, if it continues to grow, it's entirely possible the venture capitalists ma…
"Everyone wants investment from venture capitalists". I have a bootstrapped side project, Tunnelmole, turning a small profit and growing at a slow and steady rate on its own. I'm the engineer so I only really pay hosting costs, which are covered by the revenue, although in the early days I had to cover this. While venture capital is an option, if it continues to grow, it's entirely possible the venture capitalists ma…
The ending of the piece helps to confirm exactly what you said - really, you want to bootstrap unless you are going so gangbusters that a lack of quick cash is damaging your ability to grow.