Admittedly, entrepreneurs are as as diverse as the rest of human mankind, so very different types prevail which gives the necessary challenging spice to any discussion. So, I often run into clashes with other entrepreneurs when it comes to the question: Is a venture capitalist funding your company a good thing? And my clear and unambiguous attitude is: YES! I was thinking about this issue over and over and today ran into this article from Business Week which lists the pros and the cons. And I am strongly inclined towards the “good”, not with disregarding the “bad” and the “ugly”.
My point, however, is when I talk to other entrepreneurs who don’t want a VC in their company which includes mostly also on the board: “I don’t want to lose my independance” or “I don’t want anybody else in my company.” Somehow you can hear is the suble resonance of “I bacame self-employed because I am unable to have someone above me.” So what? I my usual vulgar language I’d respond: You are always the whore of someone. Of your clients, customers, of your wife, girl friend etc. So in this case you have someone in your company who has a say but who at the same time might be many times smarter that yourself when it comes to getting your company off the ground and making it really successful. And success in business, as dull as it may sound, is in the first place wealth creation, and not playground creation for entrepeneurs who see their missions, visions, self-indulgence or all three come on top of their agenda. Sometimes it can really help to get a sober reality check before your get obsessed with something and lost the natural distance for objectivity. It should finally be mentioned, that only a few fast and high scaling businesses are interesting for VCs. But if your are in one of them, and disregard a VC which can make the most out of your concept, you forgo the true potential it contains.
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