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> VC is a "trend to avoid"? Avoid "Hypergrowth"? I guess companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Stripe, Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest and a hundred othe

> VC is a "trend to avoid"? Avoid "Hypergrowth"? I guess companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Stripe, Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest and a hundred others all really messed up I'm not going to say that VC isn't ever or usually the right move, but this comment is the height of survivorship bias. Not every business idea should be a VC-funded startup and trying to shoehorn every team and every business model into that path is a mistake. Whether to take VC capital is situational and depends on the team, market, product idea and all other factors of that specific startup. The businesses you listed were all the proverbial winning lottery tickets. There's plenty of losing lottery tickets too, and many of those had great ideas that would have been better served with a bootstrapped model that looked for slower, more sustainable growth and increased founder control. A great startup is like a great food recipe. You have to mix the right ingredients in the right amounts to make it taste good. Almost every ingredient works in some dish, but many ingredients don't work in combination. Dishes can be appetizers, mains or desserts, and you'll want to add different ingredients depending on which one you're making. VC is like sugar. It can make your startup fat in a hurry, but if you're growing very quickly, all those calories can keep you from starving. It tastes great in almost anything, but it's put into way to much of what we eat today and causes a lot of premature deaths.

hugs 9y ago
Another useful metaphor is that venture capital is rocket fuel. It's not useful if you're not building a rocket. And VCs only really want to give rocket fuel to rocket builders, anyway. VCs will be angry if you end up building a car or a plane instead of a rocket, no matter how awesome the car or plane that you built is, because they promised their investors (LPs) that they would only invest in rockets. But if you've clearly already built a rocket (perhaps after years of bootstrapping, and it's now obvious you can reach orbit -- if only you had enough fuel -- then venture capital, err rocket fuel, might make sense.)

hugs 9y ago

Another useful metaphor is that venture capital is rocket fuel. It's not useful if you're not building a rocket. And VCs only really want to give rocket fuel to rocket builders, anyway. VCs will be angry if you end up building a car or a plane instead of a rocket, no matter how awesome the car or plane that you built is, because they promised their investors (LPs) that they would only invest in rockets. But if you've clearly already built a rocket (perhaps after years of bootstrapping, and it's now obvious you can reach orbit -- if only you had enough fuel -- then venture capital, err rocket fuel, might make sense.)