Shortcut Your Startup by Courtney Reum & Carter Reum

Author:Courtney Reum & Carter Reum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jeter Publishing

4. Beware of taking too much money at the very start.

From the outside, when you’re capital poor, it can look like heaven to get a huge cash infusion and a crazily large valuation. But we believe that can be one of those “watch what you wish for” situations. It often results in undue pressure on the business because you have to maintain a certain growth rate to keep your investors happy. It’s better to have the time to learn, tweak, and validate your model before convincing the big VCs to give you the big bucks. A tech guy we know is in this boat right now. He’s attracted a lot of money and attention, but he hasn’t even gotten his prototype ready to test. What keeps him up at night? Worrying that he’s sold his investors a multimillion-dollar pipe dream.

Testing and iterating are the best things you can do to manage your risk proactively. Through iteration, you break up your massive, audacious goal into many small bites. Take each one as it comes, and stay flexible to make sure that you are building a better company every day.

Last, staying flexible and maintaining a diversified focus is not just reserved for startups. Our former employer, Goldman Sachs, is a great example of a company that leverages its brand and platform to stay in interesting crosshairs, particularly as it relates to the innovation economy. Since Goldman Sachs does not do much startup investing, it would be easy for an institution of its size and scope to start paying attention to companies only when they become relevant to its core businesses. Instead, visionary leaders such as the president and co-COO, David Solomon, have championed programs such as the Builders + Innovators Summit, where the firm brings together some of the most impressive emerging innovators and entrepreneurs in the country, as well as those who have already attained great entrepreneurial success, to share ideas, break through challenges, and grow their networks. In doing so, Goldman Sachs is keeping its finger on the pulse of the next wave of world-changing businesses.

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