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I founded 4 startups after moving to SF with $600 (and without support from my family). It's easy to make excuses for why you can't start a company and in fact

by cbtacy 5y ago

I founded 4 startups after moving to SF with $600 (and without support from my family). It's easy to make excuses for why you can't start a company and in fact there are a million great reasons why you should never do so. Starting a company is a terrible decision from a purely rational or financial perspective. But don't act like it's not possible unless you're rich. That's just not true.

epicureanideal 5y ago
Can you share more details about your story? Maybe it will be helpful to others. Thanks!
- cbtacy 5y ago
  Growing up poor and hungry tends to turn some people into hustlers. That's how it worked for me. Then it was just "right place, right time." First startup was acquired after Series A by a publicly traded company. Second startup was bootstrapped by the founding team of the first startup and was acquired by a publicly traded company. Third startup was acquired after the Series A by a competitor. Fourth startup was acquired after the Series B by a publicly traded company. I had incredible co-founders and worked with some amazing teams. I only had one bad investor and was lucky enough to work with some incredible board members. But most of all, I had incredible timing and I embraced the grind.
  - epicureanideal 5y ago
    Can you share more about how you managed to get the first startup up and running, and especially the seed and series A fundraising process in your specific case?
    - cbtacy 5y ago
      We started working out of a coffee bar, using our pooled savings along with credit card debt (representing about 7 months runway). We were introduced to a great Angel investor by a former boss who gave us glowing recommendations. This Angel did the seed round along with a small syndicate they brought along with. We subleased a super crappy office in San Mateo. Our MVP was quite successful, and we decided to go out for our Series A (using intros from our lead investor). Over the course of 40 days we pitched pretty much every institutional VC in the Bay Area (and every single one passed on us). Just about when we were ready to give up, the very first VC we pitched called us and asked us to come back and re-pitch. They ended up leading the Series A, and our existing investors took the rest of the round.

by cbtacy 5y ago

epicureanideal 5y ago

Can you share more details about your story? Maybe it will be helpful to others. Thanks!

cbtacy 5y ago
Growing up poor and hungry tends to turn some people into hustlers. That's how it worked for me. Then it was just "right place, right time." First startup was acquired after Series A by a publicly traded company. Second startup was bootstrapped by the founding team of the first startup and was acquired by a publicly traded company. Third startup was acquired after the Series A by a competitor. Fourth startup was acquired after the Series B by a publicly traded company. I had incredible co-founders and worked with some amazing teams. I only had one bad investor and was lucky enough to work with some incredible board members. But most of all, I had incredible timing and I embraced the grind.
- epicureanideal 5y ago
  Can you share more about how you managed to get the first startup up and running, and especially the seed and series A fundraising process in your specific case?
  - cbtacy 5y ago
    We started working out of a coffee bar, using our pooled savings along with credit card debt (representing about 7 months runway). We were introduced to a great Angel investor by a former boss who gave us glowing recommendations. This Angel did the seed round along with a small syndicate they brought along with. We subleased a super crappy office in San Mateo. Our MVP was quite successful, and we decided to go out for our Series A (using intros from our lead investor). Over the course of 40 days we pitched pretty much every institutional VC in the Bay Area (and every single one passed on us). Just about when we were ready to give up, the very first VC we pitched called us and asked us to come back and re-pitch. They ended up leading the Series A, and our existing investors took the rest of the round.