Ask HN: Is it just a terrible time to raise?
My co-founder and I have been building a new product which we launched in March this year. We went full-time in May, and we've been bootstrapping since then.
So far everything has been going great: we've gotten a bunch of customers on board, we've had good traction (20-30% growth every month in the revenue we're driving), and we've come up with some awesome products that have outperformed our competitors in the same space -- some with billion dollar valuations. We collectively have a ton of industry experience, me as an engineer, my co-founder as a product manager, on a very high profile team at a large tech company.
We've been angling towards raising some pre-seed capital, to accelerate our sales and activation and hire a few more people. But so far we haven't managed to close with the handful of VCs we've talked to. Not to mention doing a raise seems time-consuming as hell, when we'd rather focus most of our energy on growth.
What are we missing?
- Is it a matter of casting a wider net and talking with absolutely everyone, rather than focusing on the specific VCs we feel would be most valuable to helping us grow?
- Obviously the market is down; is it just a terrible time to raise, and we need to wait for a more opportune time?
- Are we talking to the wrong people -- should we be focused primarily on angels at this point, to get some capital under our belts and keep proving out our product?