To Seek or Not to Seek Funding

Tory Burch CEO and Co-Founder Tory Burch and Revolution Chairman and CEO Steve Case discuss fostering entrepreneurship in the U.S.

The advice, on the one hand, is to secure funding to start up your start up.

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban discusses the U.S. Economy and starting a business with Trish Regan at the Clinton Global Initiative in Chicago.

Yet, on the other hand, there is advice from Mark Cuban: Starting up is about brains and effort, not capital. 

How is an entrepreneur to reconcile these seemingly contradictory pieces of advice?  

If you have a compelling idea, and you wrap it in a sound business model, then it makes sense for you to seek investment and for an investor to dish out what you need.  But great ideas come a dime a dozen, so this in itself is nothing extraordinary.  The challenge is demonstrating, as best as possible at the outset, that in fact your business model is sound.  This is where consulting with colleagues and advisers come in.  This is where prototyping, or clinical trials, or market testing comes in.  

If you are still at the initial stages of an idea, and you've begun the brave inroads into developing it in a business, that's great.  But there's an extraordinary amount of uncertainty about it, and undoubtedly there is a greater likelihood of failure than success.  Then, Mark Cuban's advice is vital.  Bring the best of your brain power and sheerest of efforts first.  Prove to yourself that your idea isn't just compelling but also practical and feasible.  Until then it doesn't make sense to obligate yourself to a lender, an investor, or whomever.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD