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It should be: "don't borrow money, unless you really have to". Try to start a laser / semiconductor / biotech company without borrowing money...
by TriinT 17y ago
It should be: "don't borrow money, unless you really have to". Try to start a laser / semiconductor / biotech company without borrowing money...
- adharmad 17y agoKnowledge and technical knowhow about lazer/semiconductor/biotech fields is not cheap/easy. You are involved either as a researcher, teacher or student working on a phd in those fields. If that is the case, corporate funding for your research (assuming it is going somewhere) is fairly easy to obtain. Also, if your standing in the field is good, and you can articulate your ideas/goals well, angel funding should also be obtainable without much trouble. In both cases, you are not borrowing money which you have to pay back someday. It is others who are taking a risk funding your ideas. If the risk is good, they get returns, otherwise its their money down the drain. And unless you commit some sort of fraud (embezzle the money as opposed to using it for real product research), you cannot be sued.
- pg 17y agoThat sort of company would raise money by selling stock, not through debt. Until it was big enough that it could secure debt with something other than the founders' houses, anyway.
- TriinT 17y agoWhat I meant to say was that a capital-intensive startup would need venture capital to take off, but in that case the VCs would own the company. The founders would not exactly go into debt. You're totally right. Going into debt is something one should definitely avoid.
- billswift 17y agoI liked the book excerpt linked on HN last week and am currently reading Felix Dennis's "How to Get Rich". He places accepting venture capital as substantially worse than debt.