We live in an age full of stories of one-century startups, deca-century companies, startups that seem to explode overnight into billion-dollar enterprises, and every startup entrepreneur seems to dream of becoming the next Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. But the truth is that not every startup needs “venture scale.”
I see a common problem in many of the startups I work with as a pitch coach: companies will try to raise money from venture capital funds even though they know they can’t achieve venture-level returns.
You can either be a venture-level startup and get venture capital or choose a different path and build a highly profitable company regardless. But those two things will never intersect: If you’re trying to pitch your startup to VCs without offering a VC-level return, you have about the same chances of a snowflake surviving one of The Boring Company’s flamethrowers.
Let’s talk about the difference between a company that can reach project scope and a company that can’t.