
Now is a great time to be unfundable - aditya
http://bryce.vc/post/2151529046/now-is-a-great-time-to-be-unfundable
======
yosho
I think what the author is talking about is having too much money to the point
where a lot of it gets wasted before a solid business model is proven.

However, I still believe that seed funding is important to most startups for
the simple fact that if you have to worry about paying for groceries and food,
you're not going to be able to focus 100% on your startup.

A 30k - 150k seed round could go a long way for most startups and I think is
almost required just to get the basics covered.

~~~
brlewis
You have a good point. I voted you up. But I also have a counterpoint.

The most valuable asset you can build is a resilient founding team. Facing
important problems while still building your product is good practice for what
happens when a company grows. Not being able to focus 100% on all important
aspects of your startup is a good situation to gain experience with.

Another upside to not having funding is it forces you to seek economical ways
to grow your userbase. I'm focusing on this intensely now. There are a lot of
things my users would like, but I'm picking the ones that help them show my
service to others.

------
Travis
I speak from my startup's experience. We thought we were a lock for angel
funding around 4 months ago. Finally, all the answers came back, "no". We
believe it was because it's our first startup, and we did indeed look like the
cardboard rocket ship to investors. They loved the cardboard rocket, but
weren't about to give us a quarter of a million dollars to turn it into a real
rocket.

We have since gone through 3 _major_ pivots (possibly 4, depending on how you
split it). One of them was to consult in order to bootstrap -- something
through which we've learned a lot about our customers. 2 of them were pretty
big changes to our core business.

Interestingly, our original concept is still the long term goal. Hearing "no"
from investors just made us realize that we need to build certain foundations
before we can build our mansion of a company. This is likely a consequence of
us being overly ambitious at the start of the project.

------
StavrosK
Okay, am I the only one who's a bit tired of hearing that every rejection is a
badge of honour and the like? I mean, okay, learn from failures and all that,
but they aren't badges, they're things to avoid. There's no need to sugar-coat
it, sometimes your idea just sucks or is unworkable. Take the feedback and do
your best with it, but being proud of it is a bit of a stretch.

~~~
brlewis
This one sounds different. It's by an investor, not a rejected entrepreneur.

~~~
StavrosK
I know, but still, it sounds a bit patronising. Sometimes you just fail and it
amounts to nothing, just ignore it and go on to the next thing. I know it's
hard to admit we've wasted time on something, but sometimes it just happens.
Sure, you gain experience, but that doesn't mean it's better than if it had
actually succeeded.

------
bryc3
hey all- thanks for taking an interest in the post, I've really enjoyed
reading your feedback.

the impetus for this one was a series of conversations with entrepreneurs who
said they were glad we hadn't funded them when they initially approached us.
In retrospect, they felt that funding the wrong direction for them would have
validated their bad idea and reenforced their belief that it was worth
pursing. The push back ended up forcing them to really think about where to
spend their time and limited resources.

The other conversations have been with entrepreneurs and founders expressing
concern that its too easy to raise seed funding right now. That there's a
growing sense of entitlement and arrogance particularly in the bay area. That
half baked ideas aren't getting push back; rather, they're getting validated
and compounding the entitlement problem.

No one knows how all of this is going to play out over the long aul. Just
trying to lend a little perspective to those going through their own
fundraising process.

------
rwhitman
Well a 'no' is definitely a lot better than the silent treatment

