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The interesting question, if the intention was to stick it out in the long term, is whether raising VC money in the first place was a good idea. Bootstrapping

The interesting question, if the intention was to stick it out in the long term, is whether raising VC money in the first place was a good idea. Bootstrapping the business would have probably been closer in line with the vision and allowed him to retain control without eventually souring relationships

noelwelsh 8y ago
It's easy to have 20/20 hindsight. The situation was different when Buffer was formed. There weren't as many examples of successful bootstrapped companies and Joel (the founder) was much less experienced. I don't want to say getting VC was a mistake for Buffer because I can see it might have had an upside of connections and advice for what was an inexperienced team, and I think at that time the management team was more bought into the VC model. Buffer has definitely transitioned away from the VC model, though, and buying out the investors now is the right decision IMO. A lot of comments in this thread are quite harsh. I applaud Joel for having the courage to honestly share his experiences so others can learn from them.
- PopeDotNinja 8y ago
  It's not clear to me why a VC would invest in a business that did not want commit to a liquidity event. Maybe the VC didn't have a better deal to invest in at that time?
robhunter 8y ago
Wasn't a significant amount of the VC money for Buffer allocated to founder liquidity?
- hkmurakami 8y ago
  $2.5M out of $3.5M raised.
  - ttul 8y ago
    Oooooooooh. That’s interesting... So the founders got theirs already. Nicely de-risked.