Consumer startups that said no to investor money • Hacker News Board

Re: Consumer startups that said no to investor money

#41

Post by aero- » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 1:24 AM UTC

jtmarino wrote: post #40

aero- wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read an article recently on the behind the scenes lawsuits with these paid bloggers in the mattress review industry. https://www.fastcompany.com/3065928/sleepopolis-casper-blogg... It seems like these guys generated a tremendous amount of money for themselves and orders for the businesses based on which company they gave the OK to. You guys seemed to stay out all that, which I really respect, but it looked like som…

Thank you! But I'm afraid/embarrassed we were part of the reason they exist. It's very frustrating because so many people fall for the reviewers as "experts". I remember when the first of them, a blogger, called me to interview us. "I'm writing an article about you guys and btw you should setup affiliate links because more bloggers will write about you".. we setup links naively and had no idea what was about to happe…

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Especially as a co-founder it goes a long way! I'm still looking for that net30 D2C product of my own to get started. All the best!

Re: Consumer startups that said no to investor money

#42

Post by epynonymous » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 2:10 AM UTC

refreshing article, i have what i consider to be a potential small business, it's not as attractive i'd assume to investors as most things these days that have something to do with blockchain, machine-learning, self-driving cars, or billion dollar valuations, but i think there's potential for a very nice business that could potentially evolve into a lifestyle business and it doesn't need hordes of employees, i've been doing everything from development of backend services, platform, and front end mobile app, to marketing, testing, product management all on my own. obviously having a couple more people to help with sales and development would speed things up, but i don't need a 50 person team at the moment.

having read this article and buffer.com's recent buyout of investors, it shows that there are potential alternate routes to success. i can understand the nature owner not feeling good in the beginning when everyone around him's talking about billion dollar valuations and series a, b, c funding, but it seems he sold for several hundred million which seems like sweet vindication. obviously most small businesses fail and eventually need some sort of funding whether from a small business loan or bootstrapping, etc, but it's manageable.

https://madsportslab.com

Re: Consumer startups that said no to investor money

#43

Post by mikenyc » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 2:48 AM UTC

tchaffee wrote: post #22

eitally wrote: post #16

I think it's stupid to overuse the term "startup" where it doesn't make sense. At what point is something just a new small business? Is there an arbitrary set of lines that differentiate between "startups" and every other new enterprise? The vast majority of new businesses are funded solely by personal savings, friends & family, and SBA loans. Conflating something like a deodorant company with a pure play tech startu…

We could also flip that around. Startups are nothing more than small businesses. Most will fail. A few will go on to become somewhat bigger. One out of a million becomes a Ralph Lauren empire. What's the difference really between a small business and a startup?

http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html

Re: Consumer startups that said no to investor money

#44

Post by tchaffee » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 4:30 AM UTC

mikenyc wrote: post #43

tchaffee wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could also flip that around. Startups are nothing more than small businesses. Most will fail. A few will go on to become somewhat bigger. One out of a million becomes a Ralph Lauren empire. What's the difference really between a small business and a startup?

http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html

That's a good definition, and a very useful one for VCs . It's also not how most people are using the word. It's not how dictionaries or wikipedia define the word either. So I think we need to be a little careful and make sure everyone agrees on whose definition we are using at the start of a conversation.

Re: Consumer startups that said no to investor money

#45

Post by leowoo91 » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 7:31 AM UTC

ryanSrich wrote: post #15

leowoo91 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You dont necessarily have to give a board seat to get funding. Some VC would happily accept that.

Yeah I've read the high growth handbook as well. Most VCs will not give up a seat, and most companies have absolutely no leverage. The overwhelming majority of startups need funding to survive, this throws off the balance of control. The only startups that can dictate funding terms are the ones that have no real need to raise. Of course there are concessions, but relinquishing a board seat is not a common one.

"Negotiating with Hostility and Rudeness" might work :)