Blogs and articles about startups are filled with talks about VCs, angles and funding, as if any of that matters 'that' much. The first thing the people starting up do is funding and pleasing investors. As if that's what they are meant to do.
It's like a kid looking for a motorcycle when he is learning to balance his first bi-cycle.
Are you focused on startup or funding?
Build something remarkable; build something people love, something you are proud of. Then and only then you should need to think of funding - and that too for expanding.
Guess what? Before that you won't get any funding anyways. If you have not invested your time or money in building it, why would anyone else?
And even if some rich one funds you, they are most likely to end up killing your start-up. You will be focused on spending that money, keeping them pleased and so on so forth. I've seen that happening again and again. Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals, has some amazing things to say about that.
If you are stuck at funding before you can start-up - that's an idea most likely to fail. Yes there are exceptions - but without exception there were other dynamics at play. There were people focused on building & shipping. Without exception!
Where is your focus? Still waiting for funding? I bet you haven't even spent a sheet of paper on your idea.
Or are you building it already?
You are reading a post that I wrote a long time back—at least 14 years ago.
Take it with a bag of salt.
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