Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

groovehq.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 120 posts

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#81

Post by rhizome »

rfnslyr wrote: post #41
thejosh wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I agree that it's a PITA - I didn't get it when I loaded the page - and I hate pages that do that, Writing "Still completely unacceptable." makes you come across as though you were ripped off in some way..

Are we really at a point where we get deeply offended at some sort of UI change when we visit a page? Inspector it, remove it, read the article, and move the fuck on.

First, tell us where you're getting "deeply offended" from any of this. Is it that it became a subject of criticism at all?

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#82

Post by inthewoods »

One element that this misses is the fact that it isn't always clear what size business (or something even what business) you have at the beginning. Meaning, you might take $5m thinking you've got a high growth business only to discover, a long way in, that you've really got a slower growth business. I've seen this happen multiple times where the founders say things like "I love this business - if I was just running it myself, I'd really love it, but the funding makes it a constant fight." Truth is, high growth, highly scalable businesses are probably a bit rarer than we'd all like to admit.

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#83

Post by smoyer »

This series is great but I wish it had the number for each part of the series somewhere in the URL. Or perhaps a sidebar (ruining a really clean site) with the series listed in order.

Of course, my best recourse is to read each one as soon as the announcement shows up in my e-mail client's inbox!

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#84

Post by yesimahuman »

byoung2 wrote: post #54
ernestipark wrote: post #38

Well written article. In my brief stint with YC and other startup circles, I think one big takeaway I've had is that most (or at least many) people who want to start a startup or hit it big with a startup actually really want a lifestyle business. Hyper growth isn't the goal of the founders. Their goal is to create a good product that helps people and allows the founders to live comfortably and be happy with their wo…

I think one big takeaway I've had is that most (or at least many) people who want to start a startup or hit it big with a startup actually really want a lifestyle business. I think that's an important question that potential startup founders need to answer before diving in. $20k/month coming in from a lifestyle business sounds less stressful than being CEO of a startup with a billion dollar valuation.

You can do a lot more than that even. With a high margin SaaS product, you can make a LOT of money by just being smart about your pricing and pricing model, and learning how to be okay at marketing. Many products have tiny operating costs, often hosting for less than $100/mo. There is a lot of opportunity out there, and VC money seems more unnecessary every day.

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#85

Post by mwilcox »

danielweber wrote: post #70

> Importantly, with eight months of runway, Groove didn’t need the money. Geeze, stop right there. If you need the money, IT IS TOO LATE . You get money because you can use it, not because you need it. Sorry if this comes off as a rant. I was at a dysfunctional start-up once and I guess it comes out at odd times.

It's a case of need to grow vs. need to survive

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#86

Post by DenisM »

ernestipark wrote: post #38

Well written article. In my brief stint with YC and other startup circles, I think one big takeaway I've had is that most (or at least many) people who want to start a startup or hit it big with a startup actually really want a lifestyle business. Hyper growth isn't the goal of the founders. Their goal is to create a good product that helps people and allows the founders to live comfortably and be happy with their wo…

For anyone wishing to pursue this route I recommend the "Start small, stay small" book - http://www.startupbook.net/

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#87

Post by halcyondaze »

waterlion wrote: post #4

I just see a HUGE ad asking for my email address and a passive-aggressive "No thanks, I don't want to grow my business", the rest of the page blacked out. I can tell there's content underneath but screw that, I'm not reading it after that.

Agreed, what if I want to grow my business without their tool?

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#88

Post by byoung2 »

yesimahuman wrote: post #84
byoung2 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one big takeaway I've had is that most (or at least many) people who want to start a startup or hit it big with a startup actually really want a lifestyle business. I think that's an important question that potential startup founders need to answer before diving in. $20k/month coming in from a lifestyle business sounds less stressful than being CEO of a startup with a billion dollar valuation.

You can do a lot more than that even. With a high margin SaaS product, you can make a LOT of money by just being smart about your pricing and pricing model, and learning how to be okay at marketing. Many products have tiny operating costs, often hosting for less than $100/mo. There is a lot of opportunity out there, and VC money seems more unnecessary every day.

No doubt about it. I wonder how many people give up on promising projects because investors wouldn't be interested in a business that would only attract a 'tiny' market of 1000 people paying $20/month. But if one or two guys can run it and it doesn't take more than a few EC2 instances, why not pursue it?

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#89

Post by staunch »

ernestipark wrote: post #38

Well written article. In my brief stint with YC and other startup circles, I think one big takeaway I've had is that most (or at least many) people who want to start a startup or hit it big with a startup actually really want a lifestyle business. Hyper growth isn't the goal of the founders. Their goal is to create a good product that helps people and allows the founders to live comfortably and be happy with their wo…

PG represents the growth angle perfectly here: http://paulgraham.com/growth.html

DHH represents the other side perfectly here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY

Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding

#90

Post by brebory »

GrinningFool wrote: post #72
resu_nimda wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy wow, that is one of the most obnoxious sites I've ever seen (and like others, I felt the same about the ad on the blog). Leveraging our exclusive "Exit-Intent" technology, Bounce Exchange™ is leading the paradigm shift in automated customer acquisition. I think they actually used one of those parody startup-speak generators.

Holy crap. That is obnoxious. Frankly, can't believe they managed to patent detecting and responding when the pointer drifts to the top of a web page. Well, joke's on them. My tabs are off to the side, and I use keyboard to close the window anyway ;)

Next thing you know, they'll start intercepting Command-W's.
Post reply on HN