
Tech Startups Face New Investor Mandate: Profits over Discounts - raiyu
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-startups-face-new-investor-mandate-profits-over-discounts-11577452831
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burtonator
My current startup is sort of struggling with something similar.

The recent YC batch was really focused on growth and your primary milestone.

I agree with this to a certain degree but I think if you're too early it's not
worth it.

What I'm focused on is actually building a product that people care about. I'm
building our VALUE and not focused on growth.

Once I have a KILLER product the growth will be easy.

I already have enough users/customers go get feedback on what the market
wants. It's irrational for me to spend a massive amount of time trying to get
other people to use it vs just building a killer product that people love.

What these companies are doing is trying to fake product/market fit by giving
away "money" when they should be using that to try to understand why users
don't like their product.

If you have something _amazing_ people will use it. You won't need these
gimmicks.

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thrwaway69
Are you a technical founder? I feel like this is the same perspective shared
by most of them but in reality, it doesn't work for everything. Marketing has
proven itself to be quite effective against services with better features or
offering. It's definitely not something to do AFTER you have built that
'perfect' product (it will never be perfect). It's a journey doing both as you
move forward.

Although I agree with the sentiment for current unicorns. I am just unsure how
to compete on product alone especially when it comes to software, if some
FAANG has any stake or interest in the same field. You will get devoured eg -
elastic search, docker etc or anything that requires lot of data or eroding
your privacy.

Tech is special that it is very versatile to leverage in other fields and
market, should that be considered a violation of anti trust? Why is it not
illegal to leverage your existing network to pull one over the small guy? of
course, I understand it's not practical on its own to claim something but it
should definitely be a metric.

Edit: Added more clarification and rant.

