The Deal
Saturday, November 21, 
11:34 pm

Entrepreneurs: Strap on those boots

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Tech entrepreneur and investor Bill Flag has some advice for startup folks trying to calculate their company's valuation in order to raise outside funding. To paraphrase, fuggetabatit.  He says a better alternative is to:
Step 1: Create a profitable company by operating on a shoestring
Step 2: Use the profitability to hire more people
Step 3: Generate more profitability and repeat Step 2
Step 4: Enjoy the freedom from not having investors, not constantly raising money, and not feeling crappy about missing projections and being unprofitable.
A familiar mantra these days for many Internet entrepreneurs, perhaps, but one with particular resonance at a time when lots of VC-funded companies are cutting staff and venture funding as a whole is slowing down. As Socialmedian's Jonah Goldberg told us recently, think "small and scrappy." -- Alain Sherter

See Oct. 28 post on startup valuation from Bill Flagg's blog
See Oct. 17 post about Socialmedian from Tech Confidential
See June 16 feature on falling startup costs from Tech Confidential



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Comments


From: Marc Dangeard,

And the good news the data substantiates this idea: of the Top 5000 fastest growing companies list from Inc Magazine, only 3% received VC money. So if you choose the option suggested here, you have 97% chance to make it there :-)


From: Alain,

Interesting stat, Marc, and I don't doubt the efficacy of bootstrapping.

So why the fixation among entrepreneurs in chasing VC? Fine, I understand if you're a young chip or solar-cell company with some innovative IP, high R&D costs and you need to get up to speed fast. Otherwise, I wonder how much the mythology of VC feeds into tech's fixation on it.

Alain
Tech Confidential


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