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Here is a thought exercise. God is looking at Earth and agrees with you, mindcrime. He says, "It's a shame people need to spend so much time raising money - r

Here is a thought exercise. God is looking at Earth and agrees with you, mindcrime. He says, "It's a shame people need to spend so much time raising money - raising is only a means to an end, I want my People to improve society for one another. So I will make a change - anyone can get an investment from me, no questions asked, but with one caveat -- I will look ahead (simulate the universe with my omniscience), and see if they succeed in building something big and good and useful and returning my money, in case I invest; if they will, then they get my investment, but if they won't, they don't. For example if a physicist (no business training) wants $1B to build fusion power plants, they'll get it as long as they will succeed and it'll be great for society and they will return my money." In this world, you do not need to convince anyone that your idea will succeed; you can just go ahead and build it, even if your idea requires investment rounds to execute on. This is not the world we live in.

mindcrime 11y ago
I feel like you're replying to something different than what I said, or at least what I meant to say. I'm not saying that no business should ever raise money. I'm not saying that some businesses don't need to raise money (maybe even large amounts of it) up front. I am saying that in any case, the actual raise itself is NOT the goal of the company. You're not successful when you raise a round. You're successful when you've built a profitable, sustainable business that can endure while carrying out whatever your original mission was. Unfortunately, a lot of things in "startup culture" these days emphasize fund-raising in such a way as to suggest that the raise itself is The Most Important Thing. I think that's an unhealthy mindset for everybody involved.
- logicallee 11y ago
  The raise itself is the most important to any company that does not have an ability to meet its objectives without raising. The culture of financing determines what startups are possible. (i.e. the culture of financing divides the "set of startups that require a raise to execute their ambitions" into the group 'possible' and 'not possible'.) Just imagine how different the world would be under the scenario I outlined, in which this sorting does not occur.
- clay_to_n 11y ago
  If a company raises $20MM to solve a big problem, that's news. It means there's a company with $20MM in their pocket trying to solve that problem. Previously there wasn't. It's not as big as the news if they do solve that problem, but it's still important news.

mindcrime 11y ago

I feel like you're replying to something different than what I said, or at least what I meant to say. I'm not saying that no business should ever raise money. I'm not saying that some businesses don't need to raise money (maybe even large amounts of it) up front. I am saying that in any case, the actual raise itself is NOT the goal of the company. You're not successful when you raise a round. You're successful when you've built a profitable, sustainable business that can endure while carrying out whatever your original mission was. Unfortunately, a lot of things in "startup culture" these days emphasize fund-raising in such a way as to suggest that the raise itself is The Most Important Thing. I think that's an unhealthy mindset for everybody involved.

logicallee 11y ago
The raise itself is the most important to any company that does not have an ability to meet its objectives without raising. The culture of financing determines what startups are possible. (i.e. the culture of financing divides the "set of startups that require a raise to execute their ambitions" into the group 'possible' and 'not possible'.) Just imagine how different the world would be under the scenario I outlined, in which this sorting does not occur.
clay_to_n 11y ago
If a company raises $20MM to solve a big problem, that's news. It means there's a company with $20MM in their pocket trying to solve that problem. Previously there wasn't. It's not as big as the news if they do solve that problem, but it's still important news.