Today's mindset shift: Taking investor money is selling control, so price it like a sale.
September 13, 2021. Intuit agrees to buy Mailchimp for $12 billion.
Zero venture capital on the cap table.
No investors waiting for their cut.
Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius started it in 2001 and grew on revenue. No board. Nobody asking about exit timelines.
HubSpot started in 2006. Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah raised about $100 million and bought speed with it. IPO in 2014. The company later passed $20 billion in market value, with the founders holding smaller slices.
Both worked. Both sets of founders knew the trade.
Mailchimp paid in time. HubSpot paid in control.
"Raise while money's cheap" sounds smart until you notice the money was never the expensive part. The board seat is. So is the quarterly call where some asshole asks why growth dipped 3%.
You want the valuation with no board, the speed with no dilution and the war chest with nobody reading your P&L.
That's horseshit, and every investor you pitch can smell it.
The mindset shift:
Nobody wires you money for free. They're buying your right to decide alone, so name the price before the term sheet names it for you. Who gives a shit about the round size if you hate the job it buys you?
30-Second Action:
- Write the year you want out + the number you want out with.
- List three decisions you'd never run past a board.
- Got all three? You're bootstrapping. Cancel the next investor call you never planned to close.
Tomorrow: Day 276: Market Expansion Strategies
Every term sheet is a job offer from your new boss.