Is getting external investment an absolute success formula?

joshliu.co

8 points·uniquejosh··7 comments

Here is an extract from an email I sent my cofounder recently, regarding getting external funding, and the martyrdom MUST WORK HARDER AND BOOTSTRAP complex. Seems relevant:

"I've been reading a lot about boot-strapped startups recently. My feeling is that we want investment early ... although not too early. I think once we have an active small user base (1-200 users, even), that's when we look to investment for building up the next steps of it.

This may not be the idea that makes us rich (although I sincerely think it will be), and I'd rather share the risk (and return) of that with an investor, rather than slaving away on it for three years to find out it doesn't work, just so we can squeeze out an extra percent equity..."

Thanks for sharing it. very insightful. Yes, as I said, I believe that we should getting money after proving the traction and product/market fit

Is this a silly headline?

why so?

It's almost a rhetorical question.

Because "absolute success formula" such is an impossibly high bar that we already know the answer to the question as soon as it's posed.

Thanks for pointing it out. I am not a native English speaker, and this is another lesson learned to me. :)

The point I want to make is that people are spending too much of their time and effort on raising money. We need to build a sustainable business after all.

I think Seth put that in a much better way than I do: "The goal isn't to get money from a VC, just as the goal isn't to get into Harvard. Those are stepping stones, filters that some successful people have made their way through."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com