jordancooper

yea, i hear you...would be interesting to hear some non-founder accounts of their experience w this question...

I agree with the concept of same thing happening in other direction...but at least "PhD" is a known vocation...easier for non PhD to classify him as "scientist, academic, Brown University, Smart, etc..."

right...i think this is super common...very strange dynamic...

link to Steve Blank attached: http://bit.ly/2Sd87e

I'll refer you to this post by Steve Blank entitled "Raising Money Using Customer Development" and then you can tell me how that graph is not the result of lean startup thinking...as for your desire to keep burn low by maintaining a day job while building your company, I'll go ahead and say your aversion to risk and lack of devotion the the mission of your company is uninspiring...enjoy your flat screen tv and 3:00 latte's while the enterprise value in your company grows at 1/10 what it would if you sacked up and worked full time on the startup...i'll check in with you next year when you are still an "entrepreneur on the side..." way to go man...you're a model for us all...way to keep that graph going up and to the right

I am now on my second business, and I am a student of lean startup...which by the way perpetuates this graph, not prohibits it. lean startup would argue that you find product/market fit before capitalizing a company and paying yourself a salary. this graph is a result of bootstrapping my first business, taking a half salary after capitalizing it with VC/Angel money, failing at that business, and now bootstrapping my new business until we can prove product/market fit and raise at a 3-4x step up in valuation (as well as prove to ourselves that this is worth replicating/scaling)...

I'm not having a bad day at all...I'm having a great day and time in life in general...I think you missed the point of the post...I sort of laugh when I look at this graph...money is just money my friend...

right. follow up is something most people underestimate/fail to do well

I think that is is a perfect example of a company that is chasing hyper growth of analogous models without an understanding of what led to the growth. I realize this is a contrarian perspective, but as the macro environment improves and the need for liquidation models declines on the supply side, the type of growth Gilt, Rue La La, etc... have experienced should slow...i wrote a whole blog post about this a few weeks ago: http://bit.ly/5oPMM8

great analogy...i like meetings in person...more data...will always try to drive a tough negotiation off line...

When a company raises capital at a $1 Billion valuation, the dilution to early investors who do not participate is minimal...

discussion around spell check is interesting...it was just a funny way of saying "i suck at spelling, sorry about that." I try to catch everything, just wanted to set a disclaimer that the spelling and grammar in this blog is not going to be of a professional caliber...