Why I turned down investor money for my startup

pandodaily.com

20 points·torrenegra··7 comments

It should be noted that pandodaily.com didn't turn down investor money:

"I’ve also raised a bunch of cash from some of the people I respect most in the industry. This includes: Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Tony Hsieh, Zach Nelson, Andrew Anker, Chris Dixon, Saul Klein, Josh Kopelman, Jeff Jordan and Matt Cohler, all investing as individuals. Also investing are a handful of seed funds including the CrunchFund, Greylock Discovery Fund, Accel’s Seed Fund, Menlo Ventures Talent Fund, Lerer Ventures, SV Angels and Ooga Labs."

http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/16/why-i-started-pandodaily/

That makes their site suspect IMO. I probably would have done the same but I am willing to bet my last dollar that they'll be nicer to start-ups funded by their funders. And yes, I've read the declarations of impartiality.

Does anyone have any more info on getting a business line of credit? What kind of cash flow are banks looking for to give that? My company has recently started generating some solid revenue, and I'd love to take some of these opportunities since we are largely bootstrapped.

Best bet is to look at local credit unions and regional banks.

if you've got revenue you should be able to pull something. it's the pre-revenue people who get turned down.

Alex: in case one goes for a team of advisors rather than VCs, what kind of compensation should I plan for them to have? equity? monthly fee? friendship points?

In terms of the article posted yesterday[1], you want to pay them as little as possible. Keep them hungry instead of fat and happy.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5589867

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