Mark Suster warns founders against raising too much capital early. Heavy funding inflates growth expectations and eliminates options like modest exits or keeping the business small, forcing companies onto trajectories they may not survive.
Raising capital. I always tell people that you obviously need to raise capital, but be careful about raising too much. You start by raising a small amount, enough to really get going. Why do I say this? There are people who build an interesting idea, it gets competitive, they have talents, they have a PhD from Stanford, and they can raise $5 million from the get-go. And let's say they raise it at an $8 million pre and they diluted more than they should. In a business, there's two problems with raising too much capital too quickly and I made both of them. I made both mistakes. Number one is the expectations of you are that you're going to do something big and you got to go fast and I say it's like adding rocket fuel before you really know where the rocket is pointing. And it's very destructive to a company and you will feel pressured to spend it and you'll feel pressured to go fast. And the second thing is you take all your options off the table. If whatever you're building isn't working, wouldn't you like to have some option to safely park something, meaning a sale that's not huge but at least preserves what you've built, preserves the customers, preserves some of the jobs from the people you took out of their other companies, and maybe creates a little bit of wealth for yourself. You give up that option if you raise too much too quickly.
O processo de reconhecer limites, mesmo quando a vida parece exigir sempre mais.
Depois de tantas histórias, aprendizados e pausas necessárias, o @interior_iza está de volta
