It's about trading off reward and risk. Imagine two otherwise identical pre-revenue businesses, one aiming to become a $10m business and the other a $100m business.
What's the difference in risk between the two ? - by and large risk is about product-market fit, execution, hiring, etc. i.e. both companies will face similar risks. The smaller market might be less competitive but rarely is that deciding factor in success. So the risk difference isn't actually that much.
For someone to invest in the $10m startup it would have to be 10x less risky for it to make economic sense. And all the evidence is against that being true.
Certainly you can build a business without venture funding, through bootstrapping and loans, but you can't expect someone to rationally invest in a high-risk investment without having high returns.
Comments
It's about trading off reward and risk. Imagine two otherwise identical pre-revenue businesses, one aiming to become a $10m business and the other a $100m business.
What's the difference in risk between the two ? - by and large risk is about product-market fit, execution, hiring, etc. i.e. both companies will face similar risks. The smaller market might be less competitive but rarely is that deciding factor in success. So the risk difference isn't actually that much.
For someone to invest in the $10m startup it would have to be 10x less risky for it to make economic sense. And all the evidence is against that being true.
Certainly you can build a business without venture funding, through bootstrapping and loans, but you can't expect someone to rationally invest in a high-risk investment without having high returns.