These huge rounds are crazy, a $5 million exit would be life-changing for most founders.
It wasn't an exit, it was a funding event.
I know, that's my point. These funding event amounts are big enough to be great exits for most founders.
Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
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Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
#92Earlier 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.
Do you happen to have any examples of those kinds of products? I'd love to see what kinds of small SaaS apps are being run by one or two people as a lifestyle type of business.
Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
#93So here's a question... with the new rules around fund-raising, why wouldn't he just throw up a box to this side of this article that says something like: "By the way... now that you've seen our numbers, if you're interested in a buying a small piece of equity in our company, leave your email address and we'll let you know terms." Is there any downside to an approach like this? Setting your own terms and then selling…
Publicly advertising an investment opportunity is simply not allowed.
Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
#94I 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.
Sorry about that, should have only popped up if you left the page :( Gonna have to talk to bounceexchnage.com about this... Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for mentioning the name of the service so I can block it on Ghostery.
Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Do you happen to have any examples of those kinds of products? I'd love to see what kinds of small SaaS apps are being run by one or two people as a lifestyle type of business.
https://openexchangerates.org comes to mind.
Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
#96First rule of taking VC funding - be aware that you're on someone else's schedule once you do.
Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Do you happen to have any examples of those kinds of products? I'd love to see what kinds of small SaaS apps are being run by one or two people as a lifestyle type of business.
Well, my company Drifty (http://drifty.com/) was largely that (we are 6 people now), though I don't use the term lifestyle business. Not that I don't think it's cool, but it doesn't fit what I want out of the company (I'm addicted to growth).
It's not really about just being a lifestyle business though. The point is that there is so much opportunity out there right now that you can just be a few people, with no outside capital and make way more than $20k/mo. I would think followgen was one example of that. I'd be surprised if they weren't doing way more than $20k by the time they shut down the v1 service.
Even if you want to go it alone, this guy is going to making way more than $20k a month soon, if I guess right: https://www.baremetrics.io/
Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
#98Funding is overrated.
Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
#99The only point that didn't ring true was on scaling. I think it makes more sense to scale while you have the money, and use that same money to deal with the issues that arise as you do so. Otherwise, you are leaving customers without your product for longer than you have to. And that could be their loss, not just yours.
Re: Why I Turned Down $5 Million in VC Funding
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW I opened it in a background tab. Still completely unacceptable. (EDIT: as in, your site is giving a value proposition and I don't accept it if it includes a massive popup)
Sorry your hacker news experience was ruined today, perhaps you can ask for a partial refund for your troubles.
Oh hey, lets twist someones words and mock them while they were trying to give legitimate feedback. Well done sir.
Why even bother if the argument you're making isn't even remotely associated with reality?