This is advice I give founders, maybe it helps you:
1/ The only way to experience rapid growth from a cold start is through a disruptive product AND disruptive marketing
2/ Investment capital will NOT help you solve either of the problems of #1 - in most cases it will work against you
3/ Hold off on taking funds from anybody as long as humanly possible. If you absolutely have to raise, do it from people who would give you money if you opened a restaurant
4/ If you can’t raise money from people who would give you money if you opened a restaurant, you aren’t ready yet. Start a simpler business first (consulting, fractional), get some wins
5/ Building a lean, inbound machine that will get you to $10m ARR without many hires, then building a proper company once you are super profitable, you win no matter what
6/ Only hire when it hurts, but let people go the second it seems like someone isn’t the right fit. “I’ve never regretted letting someone go - only not letting them go soon enough”
7/ Start working with an executive coach at $5m ARR to help you learn how to communicate and manage people. You suck at it, have horrible habits, and it will take years to change them
8/ If you are stuck at 1%’s growth at $1m ARR, raising money will not fix that problem. You will likely need to pivot to something totally new and different to grow
9/ If you can hold out on investment long enough, the freedom you will have as a bootstrapper will give you the life you wanted when you started on this path in the first place. VC will not
Just my two cents.
Hope it helps.
Adam
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