This is such a well written piece. We need more of them to balance out the brainwashing you so accurately reference.
My only caveat is that a $100m revenue company (or even a $10M revenue company) is not a “small business”. That’s still some Silicon Valley brainwashing 😀. Because what do you call a $1M small consulting business? Or a corner store? Or a yoga studio? Those are small businesses. A $100M or $10M revenue company is still a significant outlier in a very good way.
I really like this because you clearly out the incentives and economics for venture investors and far too many founders don’t really pay attention or dig into that side of it.
Reasonably so, they interested in their business - their customers needs, the markets they’re operating in, and then next up their own incentives, but they often fail to reflect that their investors are also in a two-sided marketplace: offering their capital as a product and being paid for that product meeting the needs of their customers (i.e. your venture fund’s investors!)
Venture makes sense for certain companies; other methods of company building make sense for others and smart founders and entrepreneurs are stepping back & considering that before they commit to a path for growth.
When should we expect a podcast episode with you and Bryce Roberts? 🙄
Wise words, Kyle.
This is such a well written piece. We need more of them to balance out the brainwashing you so accurately reference.
My only caveat is that a $100m revenue company (or even a $10M revenue company) is not a “small business”. That’s still some Silicon Valley brainwashing 😀. Because what do you call a $1M small consulting business? Or a corner store? Or a yoga studio? Those are small businesses. A $100M or $10M revenue company is still a significant outlier in a very good way.
Seed strapping could be a very very smart move with the power of AI tools and the opportunity to run a super high talent density team!
Another piece to back up the drum you've been (rightly) beating for a while now
https://pivotal.substack.com/p/making-markets-in-time
I really like this because you clearly out the incentives and economics for venture investors and far too many founders don’t really pay attention or dig into that side of it.
Reasonably so, they interested in their business - their customers needs, the markets they’re operating in, and then next up their own incentives, but they often fail to reflect that their investors are also in a two-sided marketplace: offering their capital as a product and being paid for that product meeting the needs of their customers (i.e. your venture fund’s investors!)
Venture makes sense for certain companies; other methods of company building make sense for others and smart founders and entrepreneurs are stepping back & considering that before they commit to a path for growth.