Comment by cabinguy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cabinguy | Hacker News Reader

I don't personally know Rand, but I've been following his former company (and his personal twitter) for a long time. He seems to be a genuinely thoughtful, great guy with really good intentions...however, this post felt like a little bit of a humble-brag (nothing wrong with that).

It's great that he is sharing his documents, however, the chances of anyone who hasn't already raised $20M+ from VCs (and/or created popular videos for 10+ years) ever following in these footsteps are slim-to-none.

If you really don't want to raise money from outsiders, just don't raise money. Many people launch businesses with very little money. Some of us win, some of us lose. If you're in a position to raise capital from 30 "somewhat" high-profile entrepreneurs/investors, congratulations! You should probably do it!

But if you're not in that position, do it like Rand did from the beginning. Work your butt off and make things happen. Then someday (hopefully), you can post your own humble-brag on your blog.

Super fair criticism of the post and process/structure. My only pushback might be that you can raise $25k or $50k with this structure (doesn't have to be $1.3mm) and you can use these docs with 2 or 3 investors if 30+ isn't the right match. I agree that anytime you announce you've raised a bunch of money, it's bragging. But I don't know a way to a) make that transparent and b) inspire other folks to consider alternative fundraising options without a post like this.

Good to hear.

> If you really don't want to raise money from outsiders, just don't raise money.

This sounds like it’s perpetuating a false binary between VC and bootstrapping. This probably works in VC‘s favor, but not individual founders’ (on average).

PS - Basecamp is another ex of a tech co that raised money from non-VC investor(s) (Bezos) who got dividends—not a payday on an exit.

I don't know how not raising money from VCs works in VCs favor, but I'm open to listening.

I meant to say that the “VC or bust” myth works in favor of VCs (since anyone in need of any money at all will feel like they have to work with VC terms)

First - your new business sounds like a(nother) winner to me.

Your pushback = really good point. Personally, I wouldn't recommend that anyone tries to raise $25-$50k, as their odds of hurting a really good relationship will be at about 99%...but I understand what you're saying.

My advice is that if you are thinking about raising under $500k, or only raising money from family and friends, just go through the struggle as a bootstrapper. You'll learn a lot more and probably get further than you would with the friends and family money. Plus you'll still have a place to crash and be welcomed to a warm meal from time to time, if needed.

Of course I say this as someone who was never able to raise capital. So, my bias is what it is. I'm a bootstrapper. Good luck, Rand - wishing you the best!

Rand, this new business sounds EXACTLY like something I would want. Right now, it takes hours to figure out which blogs/bloggers to target in my niche.

My only concern would be: is this a one-off use product?

Perhaps if there was a sort of simple CRM to track relationships with influencers, it would make me come back more

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