Convertible notes are a show-stopper for me in the early stage of a company, because it's an all or nothing bet. Let me explain: a zillion things can go wrong

Convertible notes are a show-stopper for me in the early stage of a company, because it's an all or nothing bet. Let me explain: a zillion things can go wrong in a startup. You might not identify a scalable business model within 1-2 years, or you might not find the best way to monetize your assets. You might reach in 1-2 years just ramen profitability, with the rest of your work tied up in non-liquid assets (like non-monetized-yet code). The third year might be the one where you go crazy and manage to scale your business. But, here's the catch: a convertable note is debt; if you don't manage to raise VC money or angel funds, which is even more probable if you're not located in Silicon Valley, if you don't have connections, a track record or if something goes wrong in your startup, that convertible note which you carelessly signed 2 years ago comes to maturity. You're expected to pay $150'000 or whatever out of nothing when you've just reached ramen profitability. If the investor is an ass, he's now your creditor and can ask your bankrupcy (and get the intellectual property, the domain name and all the code of your startup without you being able to do a thing). So in respect to convertible notes: thanks but no thanks.