I have a vested interest as a VC, but I disagree that VC funding is a negative signal. That's a very blanket statement to make, and there are lots of toxic VC-f

I have a vested interest as a VC, but I disagree that VC funding is a negative signal. That's a very blanket statement to make, and there are lots of toxic VC-funded companies but also lots of amazing ones. (Similarly, there are tons of toxic non-VC companies and tons of amazing ones.) The way I'd frame it is: 1) If you want to build a company that is venture scale, taking VC funding is a great option to consider. If you don't want to build such a company, VC funding is a very poor option. 2) There are good and bad VCs. The bad ones suck. The good ones will help you and support you even if the outcome is 2x or 0x. Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures articulates this attitude well in several posts: a) "If you look at the distribution of outcomes in a venture fund, you will see that it is a classic power law curve, with the best investment in each fund towering over the rest, followed by a few other strong investments, followed by a few other decent ones, and then a long tail of investments that don’t move the needle for the VC fund. But that long tail is comprised of entrepreneurs and their teams. People who have given years of their lives to a dream that was ultimately not realized. And as I have written many times over the years on this blog, I spent the majority of my time on that long tail. This is irrational behavior if you think about fund economics, but I believe it is rational behavior if you think about firm reputation." (http://avc.com/2015/11/power-law-and-the-long-tail/ http://avc.com/2015/11/power-law-and-the-long-tail/) b) "There are two interesting things here that I always think about. The first is that even the very best investors in the VC business only get a hit about 1/3 of the time. That means that they have their share of "slog it outs" and "hit the walls" too. I am certainly in that camp. The second is that we end up spending an incredible amount of time and energy (hopefully not money) on the 2/3 of our investments that don't work out. When everything goes well, you really don't need that much from a VC. Of course, I have added value in all of my winners. But its the ones that don't work that I have left my blood, sweat, and tears on. And that's the paradox of being a VC that cares. Which is the only kind of VC you want to work with." (http://avc.com/2013/03/when-things-dont-work-out/ http://avc.com/2013/03/when-things-dont-work-out/)