Not sure if Iād say ādo moreā but maybe less waste and being more intentional.
With self-funding we didnāt have pressure to grow, the pressure was internal vs external. When we had the external (investor backed) pressure of demo days, needing to raiseā¦ it put us in a way to be in a mode of ātrying all kinds of thingsā to see what works. Which in itself is a great growth mentality, but too much pressure in that mode leads to desperation and waste. Maybe not enough patience to let an experiment run its course vs not thinking something is working then just moving on to the next.
Honestly, I donāt think Referral Rock would have made it as a VC backed business. A lot more was learned about our customers, market, and behaviors because of the slower pace we moved that had less pressure.