Precursor VenturesA classic pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm

The Startup Trade-Off No One Talks About

13 May 2025 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:20

A short excerpt from a Precursor Ventures video arguing that around the $10–$15 million revenue mark startups face a trade-off: they can pursue fast growth or transition into a more profitable, slower-growing business attractive for tuck-in acquisitions or private equity, but the founders/operators who prefer rapid scaling may not be the right fit to run the slower, profit-focused version.

I think as you get to the 10 or $15 million revenue mark, it gets more interesting because then you could build a business that's more profitable, that could be a tuck in acquisition that could be interesting to pe. But oftentimes I find the people who are interested in signing up for fast growth are not necessarily the people who are interested in or best suited to run the more profitable, slower growing version of the same company.