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That’s just the way VC works. HN posters who have never raised a round of financing in their lives love to pontificate about how cheap money is these days and h

That’s just the way VC works. HN posters who have never raised a round of financing in their lives love to pontificate about how cheap money is these days and how easy it is to get funded. It does look that way from the outside. However, this is actively harmful to the psychology of struggling founders, because raising money is objectively difficult. The people who don’t treat it as such are in for a world of hurt and / or disappointment in the future. Get customers. But also, ask founders for advice and seek accelerator programs for mentorship if VC is something you want to pursue. Financing is much more nuanced than HN / movies make it seem. There’s tremendous selection bias around advice because a good proportion of founders who succeed at it are unreasonably lucky. A good chunk more, though, just grinded it the hell out — and those in this category will often just tell you they worked really hard and got lucky. Be persistent. Build your company. Luck comes to those who position themselves to be lucky.

tixocloud 8y ago
Thanks. Indeed, I've found relationships and building trust to be incredible factors of success that often get missed out in all the entrepreneurial advice out there. And trust comes from just working really hard for your customers. I've also found that some VCs don't get what we're doing (because they're not part of the industry) and some do. At least here in the UK anyway. So I've shifted my strategy somewhat to try and leverage corporate VCs while also getting them to bring us into the enterprise market.
hsk0823 8y ago
For those on the outside, especially outside the tech scene all together, looking in, a multi million dollar series A for a company of under 10 employees looks like easy money, compared to say someone trying to run their mom and pop retail shop. Of course most people forget that this money isn't free, there's cost and expectations around how that money will be used.

tixocloud 8y ago

Thanks. Indeed, I've found relationships and building trust to be incredible factors of success that often get missed out in all the entrepreneurial advice out there. And trust comes from just working really hard for your customers. I've also found that some VCs don't get what we're doing (because they're not part of the industry) and some do. At least here in the UK anyway. So I've shifted my strategy somewhat to try and leverage corporate VCs while also getting them to bring us into the enterprise market.

hsk0823 8y ago

For those on the outside, especially outside the tech scene all together, looking in, a multi million dollar series A for a company of under 10 employees looks like easy money, compared to say someone trying to run their mom and pop retail shop. Of course most people forget that this money isn't free, there's cost and expectations around how that money will be used.