We recently announced our (appsfire) series A funding with a top tier european VC.
Beyond the obvious excitement one of the things that struck me was the number of time i received messages of congratulations. This got me to think a little because after a moment i started to fill uncomfortable with this
And today a post on Techcrunch, following a though by Set Godin resonated in me and drove me to write those lines
I first fell uncomfortable because i received "personal" congratulations and i believe the credit is wrongly attributed: the congratulations goes to all appsfire's team. and a round of funding is never ever one man's work. Managing the work flow vs VCs is often indeed one/two man's job but the fact you manage to raise is never and can never be attributed to 1 or 2 persons
But the thing that disturbed me most what the "between the lines". Funding is probably not such a great achievement in itself but a necessary milestone to get to the next level and the word "congratulations" is inappropriate in its natural meaning/perception
Frankly i find it a lot more difficult to build the right team and find talents, than finding funding. This is why i always answer "Thanks for the congrats, but this is not the most difficult part [although it is highly time consuming]
The right message should be "Congrats for not stopping where you are, and taking it to the next step" and not "Congrats you got a bunch of money, now all's cool"
Funding your company, specially with established VCs is like recognizing that you'll change your lifestyle as a company and that some other ambitions are down the line. Some other form of pressure and management style is required. It is very different to take a new service to a couple of million of users and build a sustainable company.
That's why a funding is never about what has been achieved but what is required to be achieved, and not yet visible. If you have a competitor getting funded right now you know what i mean: this is not what you see and know but what you don't
People dreaming of getting funded live for the wrong dream. Indeed a nice milestone. But this is not the goal. It is not even a goal.
You'd rather have super happy users or customers as your first and only priority.
And the day you receive this message "congrats for the funding" remember, this just a humbling reminder of what needs to be achieved.
ps: to all those who send the message i really want to thank you. this post is not about how a message should be sent, but how it should perceived and understood by entrepreneurs