As many of you may have guessed, I'm writing about the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) and its Venture Cafe. Venture Cafe is one of many "value adds" this facility offers to provide its tenants with as many varied opportunities to become successful as it can. The facility itself is the brainchild of Tim Rowe. "He gets it," is an understatement.
A selling point for many entrepreneurs is the onsite presence of a small number of venture capital firms. The drive for funding among many in the Thursday evening crowd is palpable. It's like The Grail.
And here's where I see a lot of confusion begin. Let's face it, the road to viability is strewn with the remains of utterly brilliant ideas whose developers simply ran out of money. It's scary and it makes founders do scary things to avoid it. Like compromise their vision.
What should an entrepreneur be willing to give up for investors? A title? Some equity? Your vision?
When entrepreneurs start confusing their funding with the mission of their enterprise, they become overly vulnerable. Vulnerable to the influence of spreadsheets over creativity. Vulnerable to the dilution of brand, culture and commitment that comes with having "too many chiefs and not enough indians" (another of my grandmother's aphorisms).
But here's the thing, in the end nobody will care how much you raised in what round, or who you raised it from. What will make you or break you are your customers/clients and your reputation. The True Grail.
So, here's a mantra for everyone out there seeking investment: Funding is a means to an end -- not the end zone.
Seth Godin also posted brief blog entry on this topic a while back -- more glibly than I. For more read Seth's Blog: Getting funded is not the same as succeeding
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