Hi @ncameron , thanks for your question. I touched on some of this in my answer to Sofia’s question here.
Your business changes at the point you receive that first injection of external capital and managing that transition well will help keep you on track, but that can sometimes be tricky. Your investors money and advice will be incredibly helpful to you on your journey but is not, in itself, a destination. I believe the best way to handle that is to not make too much of a “thing” of it.*
*At least in your head, in reality, if making a song and dance about it helps get you something that can tangibly help your business (press exposure, easier to recruit…), then shout from the rooftops, just don’t inflate its significance in your own mind.
- Up until this point, the success of your business was entirely down to the combined effort of you and your team
- You now have investors who have “skin in the game”
- This subtly changes some of the dynamics of the business
- It’s also feels like an external validation of the business
- I think the challenge here is to ensure you don’t lose the thing that made your investors want to invest in you in the first instance
- Don’t overthink it, don’t let it go to your head, keep your eye on the prize
- Your job as a founder is to continue to ensure you and your team remain 100% focused on what actually matters
- You should absolutely celebrate the milestone, but waste no time putting the investment to work so you can achieve your goals more quickly
- Preserve momentum at all costs