> I remember VCs telling me to be a platform, not a product. VCs incentives may not be aligned with your incentives. They are looking for Unicorns (Decacorns?

> I remember VCs telling me to be a platform, not a product. VCs incentives may not be aligned with your incentives. They are looking for Unicorns (Decacorns? Centocorns?) and are prepared to have _you_ take on a high risk of failing to improve their 1:100 successful investment upside calculations. You building a comfortable 8 figure revenue and 7 figure profit company over 5 or 10 years is basically a failure in their eyes. For every Facebook or AWS, there are a 100,000 profitable "product companies" and probably a million successful-enough "lifestyle businesses". If you want to take on the risk and shoot for the stars, sure - follow that VC advice. If you'd personally be happy with an 8 figure exit or a high six figure salary for as long as you want it, you can reduce your risk of failure substantially by _not_ following that advise to the letter.