VIDEO: 3 Ways To Start, Grow, and Sell a Company Without Venture Capital

No get-rich-quick here, just the three ways I’ve put customers before VC

It is very, very, very difficult to raise venture capital investment for your startup. Especially right now. In fact, one of my investor friends just told Axios that this is the worst startup investment environment he’s seen since the Great Recession.

Woof. I’m guessing like 90 percent of you don’t remember that period. It was no fun.

Fine. That’s OK. As a career entrepreneur, I wear the customer-first badge. Proudly. I strongly believe raising money through customer sales is the best option, and in a lot of cases, it should be the only option.

If you’ve already read the post, there’s some extra commentary at the end of the video.

This post originally appeared in Inc Magazine, where I write a weekly column. Please join my email list at joeprocopio.com, and I’ll send you brief emails whenever I post to Medium, Inc., Built In, or whatever.

My public writing is for entertainment value, mostly. If you want my real startup and business advice, try Teaching Startup, my project to make advice more actionable and affordable.