[matiasp]

This mentality is not compatible with venture capital.

You want a life-style business. And that is absolutely fine. Investors want you to be very busy, scale the business and build a large company. Is the only way they can make their money back.

(I work for a venture fund in Dubai)

[jacquesm]

> You want a life-style business.

A non-funded company is not by definition a 'life-style business'. That's pretending there are only two choices whereas in fact there is a huge continuum ranging from mom-and-pop operations all the way to enormous privately held conglomerates.

If you work for a venture fund you should know that the choice is slightly more complicated than funded and life-style businesses.

Being 'happy' does not mean someone wants a 'life-style' business, it simply means they want a healthy work-life balance and that says nothing about the eventual size of the company.

[emorse]

I don't think he was commenting on the non-funded company nature making it a 'life-style business', but on the OP comment that he didn't want to be busier as a result of funding.

[sportanova]

VC is a life-style business

[ak39]

>You want a life-style business.

Who doesn't? In the end, everyone is choosing a life-style. Life-style decisions should be the first and most important motivating factor for engaging in any business activity - not money, not growth. Life-style. Money and growth and all the tangible business indicators are at least an order of factor away from the real reason folks do business.

Folks wanting the venture funded path are also choosing that particular life-style: that of a pseudo-employer/boss with expectations and salaried "at-the-coal-face" employees arrangement. If this is what makes them happy, they are in it as much for that particular life-style.

You get what you want. Happily.

[thetmkay]

I think the "life" in life-style is the same "life" from work-life balance: ie, priorities outside of work. Therefore a lifestyle business is one where (supposedly) you sacrifice growth for time outside of work.

The problem with the phrase is that it's become an insult in many corners of the startup world, as if bootstrapping a business on your own to survive decades is not ambitious enough.

The parallel I thought of is getting in shape: becoming a body-builder (by living at the gym and taking steroids) or just be in good shape (by eating healthier and exercising regularly).

[tehayj]

For us its life work balance. I just started a small game studio because that's what I really like to do. It's already a retirement project, sort of, because I only have to make the strategic decisions for our business and someone else is handling all day to day business and scaling the company. I just dont want to abandon the game studio project now just to make some investors happy. We have positive cash flow anyway.

[lmm]

Some people want to spend a few years making big money to support the lifestyle they want in the future. Or want to prove a point / test a hypothesis, and consider that more important than their lifestyle.

[Lordarminius]

What areas do you specialize in? Do you invest in Africa? if so send me your details.