We’ve been reflecting lately on how best to continue to pursue what we love: designing learning environments.
The world out there seems to think that to succeed as any kind of business, you need to be thinking in terms of 7-figure revenues and significant investment from other sources (e.g. VCs, angels, etc.). Even federal small business grants seem to be taking a VC approach to funding these days.
While I recognize that a business ultimately has to focus on the bottom line, I also worry that such single-minded pursuit of revenue can put everything else at risk. I’m not yet convinced that giving up control to VCs in order to pursue growth and revenue is the only way. The big worry is that revenue will come at the expense of learning.
It’s refreshing to hear other success stories from small startups. Crain’s Chicago Business has an article on The New Face of Technology, a number of small Chicago companies that have made it on their own.
posted May 02, 2006 by ben
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Interesting article. Seems to be more and more articles these days on tech companies spurning investors and living lean. The main points seem to be:
* We've learned our lessons from the 90s.
* Self-funding breeds efficiency.
* It's cheaper and easier to operate business these days given new technologies and new ways of advertising.
* Founders want to retain control.
These themes are echoed in our posting (http://www.inquirium.net/blog/archives/a..), a similar take on what's currently happening with the Silicon Alley revival.
matt () - 03 05 06 - 13:23