Memo to Start-ups: Youâre Supposed to Be Changing the World, Remember?
Memo to Start-ups: Youâre Supposed to Be Changing the World, Remember?
Sarah Lacy asks where all of the billion dollar startups have gone and chastises entrepreneurs for playing it too safe.
I think what she’s seeing is an artifact of the TechCrunch50 requirements — you must launch at TC50 — and the fact that you can’t bootstrap a billion dollar business.
The next huge idea, like Better Place, takes a lot of VC money. The kind of money that gets noticed and written about on TechCrunch. Which disqualifies you from TechCrunch50. Nobody raises $50 million dollars in stealth mode anymore.
Bootstrapping it yourself or taking a $500k investment leaves you open to a Mint.com like exit – a life changing amount of money and no VC around to veto the deal because they aren’t seeing a big enough ROI.
I’d like to see Sarah Lacy turn down $170 Million after 3 years of work.