[mindcrime]

Ehhh, I don't know. I mean, yeah, I agree with the general gist of your blog post there, but... For some startups, especially early-stage startups, they do need money...not necessarily big money, but enough money to actually start at all. Or, let me put it a different way, even for the very early stage startups, capital can be very important - in at least some cases.

I'm thinking of the bootstrapper scenario, where the founders don't have the kind of cash reserves just lying around, to enable them to quit and work on the startup fulltime right away. So they're forced to keep dayjobs and work on the project nights and weekends. Now, you can get a lot done, especially from a product standpoint, working nights and weekends. But when you need to go out and meet people (potential customers, partners, distributors, investors, whatever)... well, those people usually expect to do business during "business hours". If you have a potential customer on the table, but you can't meet with them because you're at work at your 9-5 all day, or because you can't afford to fly to $EAST_BUMFUCK, or whatever, it really puts a crimp in things.

Of course, I'm not saying it can't be done... In fact, I'm in the middle of doing this myself, and we find workarounds: I meet people over lunch, or come in early and leave early at the $DAYJOB so I can meet early afternoon (or flip it around for a breakfast meeting), and I use Skype, chat, etc. to do remote meetings. And we solve the travel expense problem by focusing on customers who are geographically close to us. And for us, the advantages of bootstrapping justify doing this for now. But I can see where many startups would really need - at a bare minimum - enough money for the founders to be able to work on the project fulltime, and maybe some money to cover incidental expenses from going through Customer Development.

[swombat]

There are many things that a person can do to liberate their time so they have the flexibility to spend good chunks of flexible time on their startup. Those things (e.g. moving to a more consulting/self-employed type role, not an employee role) also teach that person how to run a profitable business, deal with taxes, cash flow, sales, etc. Having someone else's money in your bank account teaches none of that.

I agree that it is far better to be in a position to work full-time on your startup, but I think it is not so valuable that it is worth taking the downside of raising funds just for that. "Relentlessly resourceful" (to use pg's words) people find the time to make it happen somehow.

Similarly, relentlessly resourceful people make it happen without having to fly to east bumfuck. Shit, in today's world, with all the remote communications available, and the fact that most companies (at least the SMEs) are perfectly happy to do business remotely. And if your business requires you to go to east bumfuck to make sales in person, and you don't have the resources to do so, then you're just doing the wrong business. Pivot to one where you can do the sales remotely, or there are enough clients nearby to sell to.

[mindcrime]

Sure, and like I said... I know it's possible, because I'm doing it. And as much as I'm opposed to overly focusing on raising money[1], I can certainly see how some entrepreneurs would be better served to go ahead and raise money - at least some small amounts - earlier.

One reason, among others, is the risk of missing an opportunity because you can't move fast enough to capitalize on it, due to lack of resources. For most of us, there is competition out there, and if they're moving faster, capturing mindshare and establishing their position in the market, it could be pretty damaging (psychologically, if nothing else) to not be in a position to respond.

[1]: http://www.fogbeam.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-point-of-startup...