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Startups don't need to fail fast. They can succeed slow.
by
Jessica Hertsberg
https://twitter.com/_buildd/status/1530518023857065985
If you take VC funding, then you have to fail fast. Otherwise by definition, you are not a startup. However, nothing wrong with being a SMall business that grows slowly but the moment you take VC money, expectation is to fail fast or become a 100 million/billion dollar company.
Agree 100% on the VC route, but if you are bootstrapping slow and steady wins the race :-) I have found that bootstrapping works very well, reinvest in the company for the first 3-5 years, but you need to see the exponential growth in revenue. If the growth is not there then STOP and reevaluate.
Absolutely. Nothing wrong with growing slowly. In fact, I'd argue for most indie hackers it's exactly the best way to grow.
I've started to think along these lines: What do I want? I want something I own and direct (no VC). I want to build the thing I want to build (no VC or manager), and if it's not something people will pay for, then I will have to continue trading time for money. If I can find the thing that I want to build and that people will pay money for, then I've found something worth chasing that helps others and myself.
I think I'd probably want to know as soon as possible that I haven't found that union. The catch is how much investment or experimentation before I can say this "thing" matches enough of my vision and hopefully is useful? If it's not useful it might have taken too long to arrive at that conclusion, if it's too small of an investment I get poor feedback that might be a false negative...
Hmmm. Makes me think fail fast is not binary in the sense that you either follow this practice or not, but instead do your best at all times, and make sure you don't fool yourself along the way.
I love your post, some founders stuck on a dogma where startup need to grow fast and get funded lot of money. In some case yes, we need to grow fast to outcome competitor or grow marketshare. But it doesn't always mean that way, it's important to always look at our customer than competition. If we get well known & have emotional with customers, eventhough its only 100 of them. They will stick forever instead of getting 1000 with incentive we give everyday etc. Once they didnt get those, they leave.
It's actually a simple choice. A founder knows.
Are they ready to dive into the high pressure, high velocity A/B/C/D round .......VC funded madness. Nothing wrong, this brings the riches too.
or do they want to build something sustainable with the speed and direction that they are convinced with. Brings lesser value, but charming none the less.
I agree, especially if you are bootstrapping your startup and already have a fixed source of income.
Yes, it needs more effort