VC-Backed Founder Anonymous

You’re a founder. You’ve raised capital from angels and venture capitalists, but it was a shitty experience end to end.

The board didn’t help you much. The money invested was a tax break for angels. You’re one of many investments to them, and you can feel it.

You push through, continue to drink the proverbial VC kool-aid, with a growing desire for a better way. Yet, your eye still twitches.

You need money to buy you time. Your mind is telling you to go bootstrap, but your body is telling you to secure the VC bag. You’re an addict that needs help. But as you seek a calmer path, you start having withdrawals.

You start having dreams of mythical creatures, like angels and horses wearing strap-ons (unicorns). But instead of waking up from wet dreams, you wake up with cold sweats. Reminded that the VC thrill is an invite to cap table hell.

Your next thing must be a calm company. You want to get high on your own supply, customers. You’d rather go off the beaten path with your boots strapped.

To fight it, you need help. You need VC-backed Founder Anonymous.

Here are 10 steps towards choosing a different path:

1. Admit that Valuable Customers are the best VCs
2. Believe that being profitable at all costs can restore your sanity
3. Admit to users, yourself, and advisors your past fixation on VCs
4. Prepare yourself, your team, and users for a calm business approach
5. Make a decision to listen to users, invent for them, and put them at the center of their own universe
6. Don’t just make a better product; make a better user.
7. Ask yourself how you can improve your bottom-line, not only your top-line
8. Make a list of all the bootstrap founders, study what worked, and what didn’t
9. Seek a group of bootstrap founders you admire, reach out, and embrace their wisdom
10. Share your story with other founder’s suffering from VCs.

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