Justin GordonFounder, The LA Grind & The SF Grind

Why Waseem Daher Calls Fundraising a Necessary Evil

30 May 2025 · 1 min

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In this segment, Waseem Daher (spoken by Speaker A) frames fundraising as a "necessary evil" rather than the ultimate goal for a startup. He emphasizes that a company's success should be measured by building a product that customers want and can pay for, not by which venture capital firm invests. While acknowledging that raising capital can be correlated with growth, he advises founders to treat fundraising as a pragmatic step: secure the needed money efficiently, then return focus to building the business. He also suggests that the ideal scenario is to run a company that can grow without external funding. The key mindset is to detach personal worth from investor interest, view fundraising as a transactional necessity, and prioritize product-market fit and cash flow over chasing VC approval.

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I think your view has to be, one, fundraising is a necessary evil, not the goal. Like your success as a company and your worth as a person, it doesn't matter whether, you know, firm XYZ invested in the company. It's like, that's actually not the point. The goal of your company is to build a thing that customers want and want to pay for ultimately, or to make money in some way. And VC interest or VC investing, maybe like there's probably some correlation, but it's like it's actually not the game you are trying to win. Just don't get too concerned about like, Like, you know, well, they didn't like me. It's just like, that's not what you're— it's a necessary evil. Get some money in the bank and move on with your life. Or even better, like, run a company that doesn't need to raise money. That's even better. But if you do, like, the goal is to efficiently get it done and get back to work. And so I think that allowed us to, like, in some ways take it less personally. It's like, okay, we're doing this thing because the business needs some capital and, like, let's get it done. Let's make it happen. It doesn't matter if everyone likes it or not. Like, again, what matters is, like, is there a partner who, like, feels— has enough conviction to kind of make this happen?