Welcome! If you’ve landed here, chances are you are a founder looking to raise capital, a business owner interested in maximizing your businesses potential, or maybe just someone interested in learning more about business financing. Consider this site your guide to the wonderful world of startups and venture capital.
As your guides, let’s start with our credentials:
- Over 15 years of founder experience
- 4 companies started; 2 successful exits
- Over $30MM in venture capital raised
- Bootstrapped one company from $0 to over $6MM in annual revenue
- Assisted over a dozen companies in raising capital
- Numerous angel investments in both SaaS and consumer brand startups
There’s the good. The bad?
- In the process of jumping on the VC Treadmill, went from 25% to 6% ownership of one company
- Watched two startups fizzle out after years of hard work and sweat equity invested
- Raised a series A round in September 2021 that was underwater six months later
- Worked with many companies that raised money in 2021 at excessive valuations only to take down rounds or close up shop in the next two years
We’ve seen the good and the bad in startup / VC land. Throughout these years a few things have become very clear to us:
- Many companies raise capital when they don’t need to
- Raising a round is often treated as the goal when it’s actually a sub-optimal means to an end
- VC incentives are highly misaligned from founder incentives
- Many companies operate as if they will eventually need to raise capital…which means that they don’t operate as efficiently as possible, and they are guaranteeing that they end up on the VC Treadmill
So why are we here? We want to educate others to help them avoid the pitfalls of raising capital. We want founders to build sustainable businesses that are not forced into a “grow faster, raise more, grow faster, raise more” business model that creates burnout and limits flexibility. And we want to build a community where founders and business owners can understand all of the options that are available when it comes to growing their business.
So take a look around and educate yourself. Reach out to us at info@thevctrap.com with questions, comments, or suggestions. And founders, always remember that your company is YOUR company; selling any piece of it should be a last resort.