Is It Really Newsworthy When a Startup Raises Money?

Instead, we should brag about how little we spend

Is it a sign of success when a startup raises outside investment?

I mean, I get it. I understand that if a new and unproven company can get some press coverage that clearly shows real cash-money faith in that company’s product and business model, that coverage could lead to a number of new sales leads and maybe even follow-on investment interest.

But does it really? Is anyone doing the math on how often the dominoes fall the right way such that one risky raise isn’t just a precursor to more risky raises?

This post isn’t a rant against outside investment for startups — far from it. Rather, it’s a call to every single founder to keep their focus on pinching pennies so they can maintain runway.

Maybe together we can make that as “cool” as selling huge chunks of a founder’s dream for a few million bucks.

Here’s what we should be doing instead.

Bragging about burn rate

I had an intro meeting yesterday with a fellow founder who, like me, had raised venture capital in the past but was now trying to get a project off the ground by bootstrapping. We got along well right away, and eventually…