Last week I was catching up with an entrepreneur that had turned his startup profitable due to the uncertainties around the Covid pandemic. Then, something unexpected happened: a newfound freedom and unexpected sense of calm emerged from being profitable.
Controlling your own destiny, as impossible as it is, is magical.
Turning profitable, and jumping off the fundraising treadmill, is the right course of action for most startups. Yes, there are some winner-take-most/capture-the-market startups where VC makes sense. But, for the vast, vast majority of startups, VC doesn’t make sense.
Once on the venture treadmill, getting off is extremely difficult. The burn rate is aligned for the next funding event. The board composition is aligned for raising more money. The extra office space rented is aligned for raising more money. The promises made to existing investors are aligned for raising more money.
There’s no easy solution once venture money has been raised to change directions.
Raising more money isn’t freedom.
Achieving profitability is freedom.
David Cummings on Startups 
David, this is really good. For many years, l have adopted this unpopular model to start my first, second and now 3rd company.
While many of my fellow entrepreneurs raise boatload of cash from VC who are looking to sale or exit sooner, majority today are no longer in existence. l chose to only focus on slowly growing and profitability. It did take longer but we are doing great , working on scaling and profitable