转自:TechCrunch
编者按:乔夫·麦奎因(Geoff McQueen)是 AffinityLive 首席执行官。
当你的创业团队不断消耗积蓄,并急于实现盈利时,风投融资似乎是一个不错的选择。
获得投资人的投资将使你拥有资源去扩大团队、赢得充足的发展时间,并获得其他创业者的重视,更好地吸引人才和潜在客户。当然,这也将使你成为普通人眼中的成功人士。
这些都是事实,而业内的一个普遍观念在于,创业者应当尽可能多、尽可能频繁地融资。在某些情况下,这可能是正确的选择,但基于以下 3 点原因,尽可能多地融资往往并不符合创业者或公司的最佳利益。
融资就像是点餐
当你们在餐厅里点餐时,你们会考虑自己的饥饿感。如果不是很饿,那么一些点心就已经足够。你不可能仅仅因为餐厅有售,就点上一桌大餐。我们都知道,剩下的饭餐将会被丢弃。
融资也是一样。如果你没有饿到要点上一桌菜,那么就不要这样做。你不应该使用现金甚至举债去点上过多的食物。对于融资,这意味着拿出过多的股份去换取现金,而股份一旦出售就再也不属于你。
花钱就像是长胖
长胖永远比减肥容易,同样的原则也适用于你的公司。如果你在银行有一大笔钱,那么烧钱速度很容易就会上升,而你自己也将失控。如果这些投资能带来快速增长(即长高),那么当然很好,但对大部分创业者来说,这种支出带来的并不是长高,而是长胖。
近期一位朋友对我讲述了他在融资过程中的第一手体验。在独力发展公司,并建立起良好的纪律性之后,他们决定融资 1000 万美元。在 12 个月之内,他们为了员工福利和招聘管理层而花掉了其中一半资金,但并未成功实现扩张,因此最终选择了关闭。更糟糕的是,他们失去了紧张高效的文化。在丢掉之后,重新捡起习惯并不容易,尤其是在习惯于大手笔花钱后。
巨额融资就像是疯狂驾驶
在以高估值获得高额融资之后,创业者将会变得像“疯狂驾驶者”,而公司就是他们的汽车。为了使获得的估值趋于合理,充分利用获得的资金,创业者必须孤注一掷。
毫无疑问,这会让看客们(媒体和公众)感到很有趣,而推动者(投资人)将有可能获得良好的回报,但创业者有可能失去一切。如果失败,他们会被“送进医院”,而“汽车”将被报废。投资人随后将会关注其他公司,而媒体将会等待新的有趣一幕的上演。
什么原因导致了尽力融资的现象?
是什么导致了创业者尽一切可能去融资?以下是几点原因:
投资人筹集了大笔资金,需要将这些资金投入至创业公司。他们可以选择投资更多家创业公司(但这需要花更多精力),或是向少数几家公司投入更多资金。因此很明显,投资人倾向于让少数公司接受更多投资。
与“掘金潮”类似,在科技行业,兜售挖掘工具比寻找金矿更有利可图。通过向新兴的科技公司提供服务,律师、房产业主、猎头公司、券商,以及其他专业人士都可以从中受益。科技行业获得投资越多,他们的收入就越高。
媒体和公众并不是非常了解私营创业公司的业绩,包括营收和用户数增长等,因此融资额被当做了创业公司是否成功的一个标杆。最终,创业者将面临压力,以获得更多的融资。融资额越高,就越容易被外界追捧。
最终,作为创业者,最重要的是你专注于公司的正确发展方向。不要为了吸引媒体关注而尽力融资,不要为了取悦当前股东而追求极高的估值,也不要为了媒体和外界的反应而进行粉饰。所有这些都只能带来一时的火爆。
你需要为公司的长期成功而规划,你需要知道自己的实际需求,并在需求得到满足时停止。
翻译:维金
原文如下:
When you’re a struggling team eating away at your meager savings and trying to get yourstartup profitable, venture capital funding seems like the holy grail.
Raising money from investors gives you the resources to grow your team, buys you time to do things properly and gives you no small amount of credibility in the eyes of other entrepreneurs, prospective hires and even some clients — not to mention mom and dad thinking you’re now successful.
While all of this is true, there’s a pervasive belief in the industry that entrepreneurs should aim to raise as much money as possible, as often as possible. It might be true in some circumstances, but here are three reasons why raising as much money as possible is often not in the best interest of the entrepreneur or the company.
Raising Money Is Like Buying Dinner
When you sit down at a restaurant, you think about how hungry you are before ordering. If you’re only a little hungry, an appetizer should suffice. You wouldn’t order a nine-course pre fixe meal only because they’ll sell it to you: We all know those leftovers are just going in the trash.
Fundraising is like this — if you don’t need to order a massive meal to sate yourappetite, don’t do it. Aside from the obvious temptation to waste (see next section), the reality is that you won’t be over-ordering with cash in your pocket or even debt — you’ll be buying too much food with equity, something you can only sell once!
Spending Money Is Like Getting Fat
It is much easier to put on weight than it is to take it off. The same applies to spending on your business — if you’ve got a big pile of money in the bank, the temptation (and even expectation) is to ramp up your burn rate and, in a sense, “let yourself go.” It’s awesome if these investments result in amazing growth (you getting taller), but for many entrepreneurs the extra spend goes to their waist more than their height.
A friend was recently telling me about his own first-hand experience of raising money and getting fat. After building his company with a strong culture of bootstrapping and discipline, they were doing well and decided that they’d raise a $10 million round (even though the business was spinning off cash).
Within 12 months they’d blown almost half of their round on employee perks and executive recruiters for a failed expansion they then shut down. Even worse, they’d lost their tight, high-performing culture. Re-imposing discipline after letting themselves go was tough, especially knowing it was all due to a hunk of cash they used to “let themselves go.”
Raising Big Rounds Is Like Stunt Driving
When raising big, successive rounds at big valuations, the entrepreneur becomes a stunt driver — with their company as the car. To justify the valuation they just got, and with a big pile of money burning a hole in their pocket, the entrepreneur has to go for broke.
This, of course, entertains audiences (media, the public) and gets a great return for promoters (investors), but the one with everything to lose is the entrepreneur — if they crash, they end up in the hospital, and the car (their company) is written off. The promoter/investor reluctantly turns their attention to the other drivers/companies in their portfolio and the media waits for the next entertaining show.
What Drives The “More Is Always More” Myth?
What causes this mentality of raising all you can, whenever you can to be so pervasive? Here are a few reasons:
Investors are raising larger funds, and they need to invest that money in startups. They can either invest in more startups (which takes a lot more work) or they canput more money into the same number of companies — so obviously, investors have an interest in encouraging startups to take their money.
Similar to a gold rush, in the tech sector, you’re better off selling shovels than looking for gold. Lawyers, landlords, recruiters, brokers and other professionals benefit from selling services to growing tech firms — and the more money in tech, the more they stand to gain.
The media (and the public) don’t have great visibility into the metrics of private companies (revenue, customer growth, churn, etc.), so funds raised becomes the proxy for success, the way startups are measured. This ends up creating pressure for raising as much as you can — the bigger the number, the better the headline.
In the end, it’s most important as an entrepreneur that you focus on the right decisions for your company. Don’t raise funds to get a big splash in the tech press. Don’t push for the biggest valuation to please preferred stockholders. And don’t optimize for the fanciest publications or the most street cred. All of those things are fleeting sugar highs of entrepreneurship.
Plan for the long-term success of your company by knowing how much you actually need and stopping once you hit that number.
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