You’re so right! It was an absolute disaster for us. Never do it!!!!!
Kidding aside, it is true that raising money from VCs puts you on a very defined path with really only three potential outcomes: 1) failure, 2) sell to acquirer, or 3) go public. There are a small handful of exceptions, mostly for companies that throw off massive amounts of cash, but, realistically, those are the outcomes.
If you don’t like any of those end states and what it realistically will take to get to them, don’t raise money from VCs.
But, having done so and been successful and taken a company public, I can say: it’s pretty great and I have zero regrets about anyone we raised money from. And I’m proud that everyone who invested in us prior to going public made at least a 10x return.
While there are plenty of VC horror stories, there are fairytales as well.
Kidding aside, it is true that raising money from VCs puts you on a very defined path with really only three potential outcomes: 1) failure, 2) sell to acquirer, or 3) go public. There are a small handful of exceptions, mostly for companies that throw off massive amounts of cash, but, realistically, those are the outcomes.
If you don’t like any of those end states and what it realistically will take to get to them, don’t raise money from VCs.
But, having done so and been successful and taken a company public, I can say: it’s pretty great and I have zero regrets about anyone we raised money from. And I’m proud that everyone who invested in us prior to going public made at least a 10x return.
While there are plenty of VC horror stories, there are fairytales as well.