

Is getting external investment an absolute success formula? - uniquejosh
http://www.joshliu.co/getting-external-investment-is-not-an-absolut

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peteretep
Here is an extract from an email I sent my cofounder recently, regarding
getting external funding, and the martyrdom MUST WORK HARDER AND BOOTSTRAP
complex. Seems relevant:

"I've been reading a lot about boot-strapped startups recently. My feeling is
that we want investment early ... although not too early. I think once we have
an active small user base (1-200 users, even), that's when we look to
investment for building up the next steps of it.

This may not be the idea that makes us rich (although I sincerely think it
will be), and I'd rather share the risk (and return) of that with an investor,
rather than slaving away on it for three years to find out it doesn't work,
just so we can squeeze out an extra percent equity..."

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uniquejosh
Thanks for sharing it. very insightful. Yes, as I said, I believe that we
should getting money after proving the traction and product/market fit

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hugh3
Is this a silly headline?

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uniquejosh
why so?

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hugh3
Because "absolute success formula" such is an impossibly high bar that we
already know the answer to the question as soon as it's posed.

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uniquejosh
Thanks for pointing it out. I am not a native English speaker, and this is
another lesson learned to me. :)

The point I want to make is that people are spending too much of their time
and effort on raising money. We need to build a sustainable business after
all.

I think Seth put that in a much better way than I do: "The goal isn't to get
money from a VC, just as the goal isn't to get into Harvard. Those are
stepping stones, filters that some successful people have made their way
through."

