Are You 100% Sure Your Startup Needs Funding?

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is chasing money you don’t need

In this week’s issue of Teaching Startup (#71), I answered a question from an entrepreneur about whether to fortify his bootstrap approach with crowdfunding or angel investment, or go right into a venture capital raise.

I laid out a bunch of options, including clarifying what “crowdfunding” meant in his situation, and I’m pretty sure I got him started down the right path. But one thing about his question caught my eye, and I want to elaborate a little bit more in this post.

Have you considered whether or not you really need funding at all?

Fiction is just as strange as the truth

I just started rewatching HBO’s Silicon Valley again and holy crap does that show still stand up. This time through, I realized, in the very first episode, how different the whole thing would have played out if Richard the founder turned down both the acquisition offer and the investment offer and instead forged ahead on his own.

Better? Who knows. Different? Most definitely. Wouldn’t have been nearly as good a show. But we entrepreneurs aren’t in this for the laughs.