The bigger lesson here is not about hard vs easy but the dangerous facade that many startups create. As Joe says, it forces bad decision hurting the real, underlying business. I have seen that myself in VC funded companies I worked for. The company was too focused on creating the appearance of success (which they excelled at) even though it was fairly clearly undermining our ability to develop a real business.
That's what scares me about ever going the VC route. It makes the company vulnerable to the vagaries of not just product and customers, but a third party with interests that don't necessarily align.
edit: To phrase it another way, I don't ever want to be in a position where making investors happy is more important than making customers happy.
Comments
The bigger lesson here is not about hard vs easy but the dangerous facade that many startups create. As Joe says, it forces bad decision hurting the real, underlying business. I have seen that myself in VC funded companies I worked for. The company was too focused on creating the appearance of success (which they excelled at) even though it was fairly clearly undermining our ability to develop a real business.
That's what scares me about ever going the VC route. It makes the company vulnerable to the vagaries of not just product and customers, but a third party with interests that don't necessarily align.
edit: To phrase it another way, I don't ever want to be in a position where making investors happy is more important than making customers happy.