This is an alt account. I doubt I will use it to post again.
A friend of mine leads a startup. They are beginning to draw attention and are soon to go for investment funding. They make something to be used in sports, medicine, and space.
My friend is frustrated with the ecosystem’s current obsessions. ‘AI B2B SaaS’, making 10x returns in 3-5 years. None of it is sustainable. None of it solves real problems in a way that will keep them solved for decades to come. In a way that is truly new, and better than the old ways in consideration of social and ecological impact.
In your opinion, how might my friend best navigate their choices to positively influence the world? What actions would you take, in their shoes?
Thanks for your response.
I immensely respect your drive. Many young founders I meet don’t have it in them to go bankrupt and then do it all again.
My friend aims to never touch VC funding, same as you. They have plans to push for many other funding avenues; but it is still kept as a last resort for the survival for the project. The view is that, at least, the technology will be made available and they can use the profit to fund their next venture independently of any outside investors.
I wish you the best of luck in your current venture and the next.
Thanks!
Just another a bit of advice: remember to reeeeeally carefully inspect grants; in many cases (almost always - but not always, I had some luck there in the end) they require supporting paperwork and other stuff that would effectively require you to spend resources comparable to grant funds themselves just to handle grant issuing party relations. Or they steal the IP in the end. Grants are dangerous poison, for once you have a team writing reports in payroll and rely on grants, it’s very hard to drop this, and people would rebel, and firing someone because you are not applying for grants in near future is very hard and often too unethical to do.