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Investment is done by relationships, belief in a future vision and team, and growth metrics like number of paying customers. The technology itself in its curre

Investment is done by relationships, belief in a future vision and team, and growth metrics like number of paying customers. The technology itself in its current form is not valuable

isoprophlex 6mo ago
Sobering comment for all the little people like myself who dream of owning a business based on a vision of cool tech that just does what it promises (as opposed to all the corporate shovelware out there)
- dgb23 6mo ago
  You can still do that. Not every business needs to be a hyperscaling startup.
  - qudat 6mo ago
    Agreed! Over at https://pico.sh https://pico.sh we are chugging along and having a blast. Profitable but at a scale that is manageable for us. Cheers
- crawshaw 6mo ago
  Author here. Almost every VC rejected us when we went to get seed funding for Tailscale, we knew none of them. Friends of friends of acquaintances got us meetings. Fundraising is very possible for you if you are committed to building a business. Most important thing is don't think of fundraising as the goal, it is just a tool for building a business. (And some businesses don't need VC funding to work. Some do.) The biggest challenge is personal: do you want to build a business or do you want to work with cool tech? Sometimes those goals are aligned, but usually they are not. Threading the needle and doing both is difficult, and you always have to prioritize the business because you have to make payroll.
  - momojo 6mo ago
    How did you eventually get funding after those initial rejections? What changed?
    - crawshaw 6mo ago
      One VC (well, two) understood it. Despite what you hear, there is a lot of variation. Speak to a lot of people.
      - ignoramous 6mo ago
        Surprising that a founding team as strong as Tailscale's had to go door-to-door to get seed funding in. Glad that Tailscale did & changed the industry like it ought to, though I'm sure, y'all would have managed to self-fund it either way.

Investment is done by relationships, belief in a future vision and team, and growth metrics like number of paying customers. The technology itself in its current form is not valuable

isoprophlex 6mo ago

Sobering comment for all the little people like myself who dream of owning a business based on a vision of cool tech that just does what it promises (as opposed to all the corporate shovelware out there)

dgb23 6mo ago
You can still do that. Not every business needs to be a hyperscaling startup.
- qudat 6mo ago
  Agreed! Over at https://pico.sh https://pico.sh we are chugging along and having a blast. Profitable but at a scale that is manageable for us. Cheers
crawshaw 6mo ago
Author here. Almost every VC rejected us when we went to get seed funding for Tailscale, we knew none of them. Friends of friends of acquaintances got us meetings. Fundraising is very possible for you if you are committed to building a business. Most important thing is don't think of fundraising as the goal, it is just a tool for building a business. (And some businesses don't need VC funding to work. Some do.) The biggest challenge is personal: do you want to build a business or do you want to work with cool tech? Sometimes those goals are aligned, but usually they are not. Threading the needle and doing both is difficult, and you always have to prioritize the business because you have to make payroll.
- momojo 6mo ago
  How did you eventually get funding after those initial rejections? What changed?
  - crawshaw 6mo ago
    One VC (well, two) understood it. Despite what you hear, there is a lot of variation. Speak to a lot of people.
    - ignoramous 6mo ago
      Surprising that a founding team as strong as Tailscale's had to go door-to-door to get seed funding in. Glad that Tailscale did & changed the industry like it ought to, though I'm sure, y'all would have managed to self-fund it either way.