You're totally right but you probably want to if you can. For a few reasons: - The later you raise money the more data and knowledge you have to validate what

You're totally right but you probably want to if you can. For a few reasons: - The later you raise money the more data and knowledge you have to validate what you're doing. - There's less risk involved. You know you can work well with your team. I personally want to pay back my investors 10x or more so raising money with an idea and either failing or selling to Facebook for $2M isn't appealing. You can be far more flexible. - You can get better investors interested. The best investors look for people that don't need their money and have something to show. Traction, revenue or validation. - You can raise money at a better valuation. Admittedly some companies need the money to build your company but the longer you hold out, the longer you're worth. If not you're probably doing something wrong. This means you also have more leverage and control of your company through bad times. If you aren't succeeding and need to raise money at a low valuation the chances are things won't get better quickly and as you won't have control of your company. Your (Bad) investors will likely kick you out. These stories come up all the time. Color had a founder with past wins but if he'd followed his equation, he would've been agile enough to scrap everything or try something completely different. There's nothing wrong with raising an incubator/YC style boost when you start. As in raising 10 - 50k right at the start to help you survive if you need to. Whether it be from friends and family or an investor you know that you trust. Raising $2m with just an idea seems like a bad idea.