A founder I backed ten years ago sent me an SOS.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t asking for more money.<\/p>\n
He was asking for permission to quit even if it meant booking the loss.<\/p>\n
The business had stopped making sense.<\/p>\n
He knew it.
\nThe numbers confirmed it.<\/p>\n
But the company had raised venture capital.<\/p>\n
That meant investors to answer to.
\nEmployees who had bet on his vision.
\nA board expecting another plan.
\nA cap table filled with promises.<\/p>\n
So he stayed.<\/p>\n
For years, he wasn\u2019t building a company he believed in.<\/p>\n
He was managing the slow death of one he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
This is the part fundraising announcements rarely mention:<\/p>\n
Venture capital doesn\u2019t just dilute your equity.<\/p>\n
It can dilute your freedom.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve met several founders in this position recently.<\/p>\n
They raised millions, realized the original thesis was broken, and then spent some of their sharpest years engineering a respectable ending negotiating their way through the cap table, one investor at a time.<\/p>\n
Those were years they could have spent starting again.<\/p>\n
I bootstrapped my companies.<\/p>\n
When one stopped making sense, I could make the decision quickly.<\/p>\n
Walking away cost me money.<\/p>\n
But it never cost me my freedom.<\/p>\n
Capital is not merely fuel.<\/p>\n
It is a claim on your time, your choices, and sometimes the next decade of your life.<\/p>\n
Before celebrating the round, ask the question nobody puts in the pitch deck:<\/p>\n
If this stops working, how free will I be to leave?<\/p>\n
Would you rather own most of a smaller business you control or 20% of a bigger one you may be unable to escape?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not against raising money.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m against raising it at the wrong time before proving unit economics, before finding a repeatable model, and before building a path to self-sustainability.<\/p>\n
Raise money to multiply what already works.<\/p>\n
Then capital becomes leverage not a lifeline.<\/p>\n
And you can raise it on your terms.<\/p>\n
| \ud835\uddde\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude00\ud835\uddf5\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddee \ud835\udddf\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf8\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfa\ud835\ude00\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf6 | \ud835\udde6\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf9 \ud835\uddd8\ud835\uddfb\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf2\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddff | \ud835\udddc\ud835\uddfb\ud835\ude03\ud835\uddf2\ud835\ude00\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddff |
\n| \ud835\uddd5\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf1\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4 \ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddf3\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude01-\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddf1 \ud835\ude00\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddff\ud835\ude01\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddfd \ud835\uddf3\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf0\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddff\ud835\ude06 “\ud835\uddd4 \ud835\uddd9\ud835\udde2\ud835\udde8\ud835\udde1\ud835\uddd7\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde5\ud835\ude06” | I write at the intersection of AI, capital, and the future of the human job market – sharing my life lessons, reflections, and honest takes from the founder-investor’s seat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A founder I backed ten years ago sent me an SOS. He wasn\u2019t asking for more money. He was asking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linkedin-posts","wpcat-18-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}