163

The Founder Who Skipped the Fundraising Treadmill

There’s a generally accepted script in Silicon Valley: Identify a startup idea. Sell a chunk of your company to raise venture capital. Make sales. Raise more venture capital, and make more sales. Repeat until the company goes public, or gets acquired, hopefully for billions either way.

But what if you didn’t get on a fundraising treadmill after taking a first round? What if you structured your company to sprint to profitability through slower, sustainable growth, rather than the reverse – unprofitable growth – as so many VC-backed companies do?