BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
17 Jun 2008

Good lines from Evan Williams, of Blogger and Twitter fame:

- Angel money is the food that fuels you to build your engine. VC money is the fuel that you put in the engine.

- People ask: how much money do you need? It’s never about that. It’s how much can you give, get at a reasonable price, use appropriately.

- VC money: get if you know where you’re going. Angel money: when you havent narrowed down your options

- There’s a rule: no matter how much you raise, you’ll always spend it in 12 months.

Good lines from Jeff Clavier, hyper investor:

- if you can avoid getting financing, dont get financing. avoid dealing with us.

- the minute you close on financing, you close on options

Other gems:

- the biggest difference difference between angel and VC: VC has more toxicity in terms.

Read more.  I am not sure I like Williams’ line about “There’s a rule: no matter how much you raise, you’ll always spend it in 12 months,” but I’ve not raised a penny for WatchMojo.com because “VC has more toxicity in terms” and mainly: “if you can avoid getting financing, dont get financing. avoid dealing with us.”.

Amen.  You start a company not to be your own boss but not have to put up with a lack of ethics, or politics, or BS etc., but yet when you raise money, you get that en masse, why?  Because “the money people will remove you”, not because you’re not doing your job necessarily, but because it’s in their financial incentive to do so, after all, after a company raises money, a big chunk of the founder’s shares are taken away from him and scheduled to vest over time.

What do you think happens if the founder is out?  Those shares are up for grabs.  Who gets them?  Not the founder!