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Comment by gaborcselle | Hacker News Reader

Things may not be as bad as they seem.

Don't worry about the investor's money - it's called venture capital for a reason.

You've probably learned a tremendous amount from the experience.

Think about what the next step for you is after this company. Sounds like you're a developer and can easily get a well-paying job. Sounds like there is still some money left and you can take some time and decompress from the experience.

This isn't doom. It's the first step of what you're doing next.

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Agreed. Part of the job of being an investor is to balance your portfolio, and losses are to be expected. Such a world doesn't exist where investments are risk free.

There are many entrepreneurs who have raised again from VCs even after they didn't make it from their first raise. As long as you tried your hardest, there isn't much else more you can do. Keep at it.

OOC, Have either of you built and lost others money from investors as well as lost your own?

When I was 25 I lost more than $20,000 of my own and FFF money investing in my own project only to have it fail. At the time I was obviously, really upset.

Fast forward to today -- looking back it was one of the greatest investments in my life so far as all the stuff I learned both emotionally, psychologically and professionally has really helped with current work and life.

I used to think losing money was a big deal, but now I realize it isn't. Investors are in a sense "buying" your time. Can you really put a value on your time? Your own life?

Sure, the memories were disappointing and frustrating, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. And yes, I plan to save and try it again.

EDIT: Just to be clear I'm not saying throw VC money around... of course you still need to be responsible.

It sounded like you supported what the original commenter said, not to worry about investors.

Having a slack attitude towards money (our own money or others) doesn't build a business or an understanding of value that ultimately ends in a revenue stream.

It's nice of you to share you story -- I don't think many folks do. I have similar experiences (good and bad), but I think the one thing that really stands out for me is that investors are in a sense "buying" your time, not much different than consulting...... :)

> Having a slack attitude towards money (our own money or others) doesn't build a business or an understanding of value that ultimately ends in a revenue stream.

Of course you need to value other people's money, but when they gave you they money they know that there were higher chances to fails than to succeed. If you did 100% of what you could have done, you have done your job. If it was easy everyone would do it.

"investors are in a sense "buying" your time, not much different than consulting"

Brilliant. I've never heard the concept of investing in a startup phrased so well.

It was a gong moment for me too.

I think I'd be much more open to funding if it was like this because I'm used to people paying me to build ideas, it just might be my own ideas that someone else happens to agree with.

I remember the first $10,000 I lost on a business. It was my own money (well, a loan I ended up paying for years afterwards). Losing that much money when you make minimum wage is huge disastrous. But it taught me a lot about businesses, money, and myself. I do not regret what happened.

I have not, but isn't it safe to say that if this money wasn't going into venture capital it would probably be going into something like oil speculation or mortgage backed securities, which undoubtably has much more negative impact on our world then giving some people jobs to try out their crazy ideas for a few years dont you think? It's good OP is concerned about his investors, but its just money from people with lots of it. His own money is more of a concern imo, but at least the job market is good for someone with his skills. He'll bounce back, hang in there!

I got pretty freaked out about playing with other people's money when we first took on investment. On discussing it with one of the lead investors, his response was "If all of this goes wrong, my children will still have shoes on their feet."

Your investors would not be investors if the failure of any one of their investments would create an insufferable financial burden upon them. If that statement is not true about a particular investor, that's their fault and not yours.

Indeed, it may be possible to radically reduce expenses, get a moonlighting job, and make the business more easily maintainabile at that point as well. If the investors won't call you back, and you and (and presumably co-founders) want to commit to being successful, it may not even be too late if you are willing to get secondary jobs to pay bills with.

Absolutely agree with this - it's venture captial. They're taking a risk, sure you should be responsible with their investment, but it's a risk. They're not buying guaranteed success, if they were I'd imagine it'be a far larger pricetag than what they paid.

Best of luck, but definitely do _not_ feel guilty.

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