
Top 10 Lies of Venture Capitalists - Guy Kawasaki - jamiequint
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie.html
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jwecker
Nice. I like the followup even more (
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie_1.html ). I'm sure all of
these are just as applicable now as when he wrote them. It all boils down to
genuine confidence in your product. If you're truly confident (not just
optimistic, which we should be also) you won't get strung along by the VC's-
you'll do your work, make a level pitch and move on until you find the one
that matches well. Similarly you will be more honest with your pitch. This
kind of confidence you only get with real business experience and/or real
customers really using your product.

When you land a VC deal and get $4mil, are you going to dance around with
euphoria and say "we did it! we did it!" or are you going to say "well,
that'll be 2 years to capture x percent of the market instead of 7 years- I
hope it was worth giving up x percent of the company." If only the former,
then you can take that as a clue right now that your business isn't quite
ready probably.

(I'm being a little facetious- of course you'll celebrate regardless).

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create_account
We need more models of successful companies done without VC funding.

At too many startup conferences I've been to, the message (explicit or
implied) was "you need VC funding".

I'm sure it's not always true.

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nostrademons
Many startups begin without VC funding and then take it as a mezzanine round
before the IPO. They don't need the cash at that point; oftentimes, they're
already profitable. But the VCs have connections to investment banks that can
smooth the IPO process.

Microsoft is the best example of this. I think ViaWeb may have done something
similar before its acquisition.

