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Comment by tkiley | Hacker News Reader

The "MIT syndrome" thing is crucial. I think the most important trait in a startup leader is humility. To build a kick-ass sustainable company, you absolutely, positively must be comfortable working with people who are (in some or most respects) smarter than you.

Also, I find it very interesting that the "high" of this roller coaster is the funding.

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I never understand why funding seems to be the end goal either. To me, apart perhaps from some vindication of your idea, the happiness people experience when funded almost shows a lack of vision.

For people with financial burdens, venture capital can be the difference between being able to pursue your startup dreams, or letting them die on the vine.

There are definite downsides to raising money, and I totally understand the stigma the HN community tends to attach to it.

Having said that, a 500k seed investment let Jesse and I put down everything, and put 100% of our efforts towards Attachments.me. I have no regrets about this.

I'm not debating the merits of raising cash. Most companies and businesses have to do it when starting out. The part that I (and I'm assuming the OP) find puzzling is the part about "climbing to the top of the hill overlooking the city and realizing all our childhood dreams had come true" after having raised a round of investment. This seems to me to be saying "we got a million+ investment and we won!" I think for most that's not really the point of starting a business.

I'm trying very hard to avoid the "success if getting investment" path because I think it's an anti-pattern, which in turn leads to other anti-patterns. It's much much better to get funded initially out of your own pocket, and then next out of customer's pockets. The earlier you get a real customer who pays you for what you give them, the earlier you validate your business/product, and you indeed have a real business, with effectively an infinite runway.

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