This post is a great post to remind entrepreneurs that getting funding is not a success. I often discuss with companies coming to us looking for funding that things change when they get money. You now have shareholders with expectations and you have obligations to them. When you are running on a shoestring, often decisions are easy because only the most important things can get done; everything else falls by the wayside. When you have cash in the bank, suddenly the universe of options is much larger - do I hire more people, do I invest in marketing, etc. It's an exciting but daunting moment. Congratulations on the funding; your job just got harder:)
I often hear people say that sometimes having options can be more difficult than not having options, but in a business context, I wholeheartedly disagree. Even in the small (300k total accounts or so) project I founded (that I just killed off), I still had to plan multiple steps ahead. Just because something wasn't realizable at a given moment, did not mean I didn't have to make decisions.
In fact, I had to make more decisions: "Once A, B, and C are complete, I need to find funding. If I get funding from X, then I can proceed with Y. If X falls through buy N gives me funding, I'll do Z because of M. If both come through, then I'm limited by H and J, and therefore I'll go with either Q or W." Obviously, it's more complicated than this, and sometimes my mental maps gave me headaches - but what I'm trying to illustrate is that once you have something solid, I think things become simpler. Instead of planning for a myriad of possibilities, you only need to make one or two per instance.
The idea sounds awesome and I signed up but the site needs to be redone to be far more clear on what they are offering. I showed this to 3 people in my office right now and no one could figure out what they were offering until signing up and there is no clear call to action to go and sign up to the free version and then doing a proper upsell to the paid from that point Site looks nice though but needs to be far more clear on there product and the free option on the main page.
I would pop the champagne, you get the opportunity to realize your dream, isn't that amazing? Instead of growing slowly / difficult / .. you now have money to hire amazing people and accelerate your development progress.
Growing a business is difficult whether you take funding or not. Many people who think like you seem to be are just kidding themselves. They're popping the champagne because they've deferred the reckoning over their lack of a viable business for 1-2 years, instead of finding out immediately that their idea is dead in the water.
You do this a couple times and then you realize, the salary you picked up from the investment round is cold comfort compared to the years of the most productive chunk of your life that you gave up.
There's nothing inherently wrong with taking outside money, but if you're doing it because "now you have the opportunity to realize your dream"...
I think you're taking things out of context, I never said you don't have to built a viable business. Or that building a business is easy - or that you don't have to work hard anymore - or that you have some crazy ass dream, you didn't do any market research etc.. If your dream is to built a great business, deliver lots of value to your clients etc. than I don't see a problem - for most idea's you need some investment to be able to find out if they are good. And if you get funded, I assume you have done the numbers on your idea, worst-case/best-case and that you picked smart investors - who also did their numbers. So if you get funded that would also mean smart people believe in your idea.
I think it's good if you're excited about the business you're building. It is only logical to take outside money if it would help you build your business. Ofcourse you don't always need outside money to build your business - and in some cases it might be better without - but if you're in the case that outside money would help you - then I don't see anything wrong with it.
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 50.6 ms ] threadIn fact, I had to make more decisions: "Once A, B, and C are complete, I need to find funding. If I get funding from X, then I can proceed with Y. If X falls through buy N gives me funding, I'll do Z because of M. If both come through, then I'm limited by H and J, and therefore I'll go with either Q or W." Obviously, it's more complicated than this, and sometimes my mental maps gave me headaches - but what I'm trying to illustrate is that once you have something solid, I think things become simpler. Instead of planning for a myriad of possibilities, you only need to make one or two per instance.
It makes sense in a very practical way. You're a startup, and you really need to focus on that startup, no matter what happens.
Damn, I get even excited typing about it.
You do this a couple times and then you realize, the salary you picked up from the investment round is cold comfort compared to the years of the most productive chunk of your life that you gave up.
There's nothing inherently wrong with taking outside money, but if you're doing it because "now you have the opportunity to realize your dream"...
I think it's good if you're excited about the business you're building. It is only logical to take outside money if it would help you build your business. Ofcourse you don't always need outside money to build your business - and in some cases it might be better without - but if you're in the case that outside money would help you - then I don't see anything wrong with it.
Whats the limitation on the "free trial" version except the 7 emails/day ?
After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.