"Do not take funding...For most new entrepreneurs, investment is a cushion that delays their learning. If you're thinking of raising investment to cover your pe

"Do not take funding...For most new entrepreneurs, investment is a cushion that delays their learning. If you're thinking of raising investment to cover your personal costs, don't - instead, learn to make money. It's really not that hard." You said this was controversial so I don't feel at all bad for refuting this. I'll start by agreeing with the idea that making money is a learning experience and entrepreneurs should do whatever it takes to make money...but don't forget these two things: 1) An investment is way more than the money. If you accept an investment round from a reputable investor, you are accepting mentorship--in the form of recruiting help, connections to other companies or industries, not to mention an investment is made to help an entrepreneur to scale so the company can make money at an exponential rate. 2) Some companies do not strive to make money initially--their goal is to create a great product for their users--but for their service to continue, they need money to operate and scale...this is has been especially true in social media, case in point with Pinterest. Pinterest has raised a shit ton of money, but haven't started monetizing to a great extent. If they had just gone for the money from the beginning, whether through ads or what not (and this applies to even Facebook), their service would probably have been far less attractive and usage significantly lower. Many times, monetizing is about timing. Pinterest WILL monetize as Facebook did and Twitter is figuring out, but it has come after a while of being in establishment. Without investment, these companies would again, not be where they are today. That money is absolutely necessary to keep operations going, whether its through labor, scaling, office space, etc. So your companies may have been revenue-generating from the beginning, and if that's the case then by all means, making money and not taking investments is decently good (still controversial) advice but that advice is not applicable to companies that aren't revenue-generating in the beginning. You can't forget about these companies as they actually tend to be what consumers move towards and is exactly why when companies like these do monetize, they are able to.