VC Minute

050. VC Validation

August 12, 2022 Rich Maloy Season 1 Episode 50
VC Minute
050. VC Validation
Show Notes Transcript

If you're struggling to raise venture capital, take heart. It does not invalidate your business. If you truly want to build this business, then you must focus on creating value for your customers. That is what matters. 

About SpringTime Ventures

SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech, logistics, and marketplace businesses. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $400k to $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.   

About Rich Maloy

Rich's mission is to rebuild the American dream through entrepreneurship. He works with early stage startups transforming the world, giving all people the opportunity to grow, learn and earn. With prior careers in finance and sales, he's now focused on startups investing through SpringTime Ventures where he is a Managing Partner. He's a father of two young children and loves sci-fi, skiing, and video games.



Rich:

As I close out the inaugural season of VC Minute, I want to end on a positive note, venture capital and validation. Venture capital does not validate your business. More importantly, lack of venture capital does not invalidate your business. The purpose of a business is to sell goods and services, to create something of value for your customers. Yet we live in this crazy world where venture funding is celebrated like it's the ultimate business success. As a sidebar, I can sort of understand why this is. As a private company, you don't want to report your revenue to the public, but you can share an approximation for that: venture funding. You can show prospective customers and prospective employees that they can rely on you because you have investment. At least that's my theory. I digress. The purpose of venture capital is to pour rocket fuel into your business to accelerate your growth. That rocket fuel may cause your business to explode. In the"explode into a million little pieces and leave nothing behind, but a smoldering hole in the ground" sense of the word explode. That's smoldering hole in the ground that contains the ruins of your startup hopes and dreams, is an accepted outcome of the venture capital business model. Wow. I wanted to end on a good note and this just took a really dark turn. I'll come back to the point. Venture capital is a specific financial instrument that pairs well with hyper scalable business models. But not all and not always. If you're struggling to raise venture capital, take heart. It does not invalidate your business. If you truly want to build this business, then you must focus on creating value for your customers. That is what matters. Raising a million or a hundred million dollars doesn't mean shit if you're not serving your customers. Founders go build something of value. Find that future state of the world where your products solve real problems. Let your customers lead the way. And pull us all towards it. I want to see you succeed because I want to live in the future that you've made better and brighter. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for listening to Season One of VC Minute. I have such immense gratitude that you came with me on this journey. If you enjoyed it and found it valuable, please leave a rating and review. And let me know what you want to hear in Season Two. As I always say time is our most precious asset. Thank you for spending some of it—a lot of it— with me. We'll be back in a couple of months with a whole lot more to say!