(finishing chatting with a vc) “yeah anyway that’s my main thesis for why someone would be an absolute idiot to raise money instead of bootstrap something in the current meta, VCs are leeches who’ll force you to make decisions that benefit them not you”

sorry i didn’t mean to hit on a sore note but i’ve been employee 2 and employee 35 at two companies that imploded bc of investor pressure (amongst many other reasons) so im allergic to the concept — i have many friends who are VCs tho!

yeah absolutely, for me it’s cause things i’ve had to suffer through:

- a co ramping up the team before getting operations for supporting it in place bc well that’s what the series A was for so what else would we do

- founder not having strong enough vision and getting diff “well what about ___?” metrics from investors and flip flop between optimizing for retention or growth or etc

Oh no commentary, just asking. My takeaway has been that it's an ego footrace and getting folks excited to win.

Most founders treat fundraising like selling a business when I've found it's closer to a seasonal reality TV show you don't want to miss.