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You said "The real tension is that if you go out and focus on signing paid customers instead of growing at all cost (literally maxing out your credit cards), yo

You said "The real tension is that if you go out and focus on signing paid customers instead of growing at all cost (literally maxing out your credit cards), you'll be less attractive to many VCs.". I think what @tptacek is saying is that you absolutely CAN go out and focus on signing paid customers instead of growing at all costs. You can 100% start/run your business that way for as long as you want. However, the moment you want to seek venture capital, you have to sell a different story. You can't sell the same linear growth story that got you to this point. That's the only difference between seeking VC and not seeking VC. Your original quote implied that all businesses have to be started or be run in a particular way far before raising venture money, but that's not the case.

gnicholas 8y ago
Huh, I thought it was clear that I was pointing out a tension between building the type of business that the author suggests and building the type of business that VCs fund. I don’t think I indicated that if you build a stable business, you can’t then build a venture-fundable business on top of that. Regardless, I’d be curious to hear about businesses that started out stable and then raised VC money to build a moonshot!
- tptacek 8y ago
  What's the "big lie" of VC's not funding businesses that you literally can't finance with venture capital? But that's not why I replied. I replied because you suggested that actually trying to build a business would make you less attractive to VCs. It will not. Even people who eventually hope to raise should still use common sense and basic good business planning to acquire customers.