Unreasonable

Why Getting Funding for Your Startup is Not the Most Important Thing

Photo from Creative Commons

Startups live on borrowed time. While you are building your company, finding your customers and establishing your business, you typically have to deal with negative cashflow (paying more money than you are making).

As important as getting funding is, too many entrepreneurs get addicted to money. Tweet This Quote

As a founder, you end up spending a considerable amount of time getting funding—preparing pitch decks, talking to investors and following up with leads. And as important as this is, I see too many entrepreneurs getting addicted to money.

A few months ago, I wrote a post on how many conversations I was having with founders on this topic. And I’m still seeing the same questions.

Their first thought is, “How do I bring money in?” as opposed to, “How do I build a product that generates revenue?”

In the previous post, I wrote this:

The very premise of these questions is wrong—fundamentally wrong. It’s backward to believe raising money is the thing and not just something you do to get to the thing. Investors want to invest in founders who are building exceptional products and creating a lot of value for their customers. That’s the only way to build something big and lasting. The moment you focus your energy away from building kick-ass products to pleasing an investor, you set yourself up for failure.

Remember that money is just an enabler for your startup—it’s not why you’re building what you’re building. Tweet This Quote

Beware this false sense of working on the “important thing.” Remember that money is an enabler—it’s the grease which gets you from where you are today to the point where you want to be in the future. And where you want to be is to deliver a product or service to the market that is useful, loved and one that your customers pay for.

As glamorous as it might feel to tour the offices of Venture Capitalists, it’s not why you’re building what you’re building. Never lose sight of that.


This originally appeared on Pascal’s blog.