Hi All,
Thanks again for joining our Capital Light Conference this wendesday... we had a lot of fun, and based on feedback it sounds like folks found the set of conversations useful as they think through how to build companies in a post-factory-farming era of VC. A few followups:
Videos of Talks -- Are all posted in a youtube playlist here.
- Zapier: Wade Foster video
- Muck Rack: Greg Galant video
- GoodRX: Scott Marlette video
- Squarespace: Anthony Casalena video
- Strobe / Instant Domains: Beau Hartshorne video
- Backblaze: Gleb Budman video
The WTF VC Deck -- which goes into more detail on the thesis that lead to these talks is, and will remain here
Some Notes -- special thanks to caroline for putting this all together... here were her notes on the take aways :)
- Businesses are a reflection of their founders. Stay true to who you are and the company you want to build, and match capital accordingly. Don’t shovel capital just because you can.
- Play the cards you’re dealt. Early founders need to deeply understand their circumstances and make decisions based on them. No outsider will know your company as well as you do, so take their guidance with a grain of salt.
- Your customers are your customers. Taking on too much capital early can shift focus from pleasing customers to pleasing VCs. Ultimately, profitability (not investors) will be the hallmark of success.
- Companies die of indigestion, not competition. Most companies only do one thing really right, particularly in the early stages. While external capital is often heralded as a way to advantage your company relative to its competition (and certainly can in some cases), founders can make the mistake of deploying it in ways that distract from the company’s core mission. This is often more detrimental to the company’s performance than any competitor would be.
- Set up the cap table you want. Be sure to work with people who are aligned with where you want to go. This gets easier as the company matures because stakeholders have a clear picture of what they’re signing up for.
Capital Light Company Directory here is a cool directory of capital light companies that Khalil Fuller - one of the conference attendees put together and wanted to share (thanks for doing that!)
And finally if you read this far, of course there will be more writing about this topic on The Information if you don't subscribe and want to, here is a special 'sam lessin' discount code to sign up (you will like it, worth part of your capital light research budget...)