I was reading an article titled “The Other 99% of Entrepreneurs“. The article states: Over 99% of entrepreneurs who seek funding get rejected. Yet, the entire world is focused on the 1% that is “fundable.”
So much focus and energy is put into companies that get funded. It’s sexy to have tons of money from VC’s, to be able to hire people at a crazy pace, to spend tons of money on marketing, to get a million customers. I guess it’s flashy and that’s what the media likes to write about. Maybe because the media needs to come up with a new story every day. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of needing to raise millions of dollars to be able to grow at bazillion percent.
When I look at the people that I admire the most, it’s the man or woman that managed to build a company from the ground up without needing to raise a dime but ends up building a million plus revenue per year company. Why? Because they did it by providing value to a customer and they won a new customer day after day. Raising money for your business idea is hard. Gaining a new customer day after day because you provide a great product or service is harder. It’s sustainable and steady. It’s not here today, gone tomorrow.
“Imagine if the American economy had many more such steady private companies that are far removed from the movements of the speculative markets, how much more robust things would be? It really is time that the media starts celebrating more of these kinds of heroes: the other 99%.”
As an new entrepreneur, perhaps its better to show that you’re able to grow your idea with real paying customers and then after you’ve proven that go after raising capital in order to scale the business out. What do you think?