Hello friend,
Why you're getting this: this is my Friends Newsletter; the place where I brain-dump hard-won lessons from 20+ companies, thousands of mistakes, and a deep hatred of raising capital.
Zero pressure to stick around. Just click unsubscribe. I won’t cry.
A few weeks ago I got yet another email that started with:
“Hey Andrew, big fan. We just raised our Seed round and wanted to pick your brain.”
Translation:
We burned all our money trying to acquire users who don’t care, and now we need help making this thing profitable before our board kicks us out.
I get these emails weekly.
And my answer is always the same:
You should’ve raised margin instead.
Here’s what I mean.
When you raise venture money, your real job isn’t to build a business.
It’s to:
You give away optionality in exchange for a moment of relevance on TechCrunch.
I’ve never raised VC.
Not because I’m some anti-capitalist rebel.
But because I like control, cash, and sleep.
A margin-rich business is a beautiful thing.
It lets you:
This isn’t theoretical.
It’s how we built Tiny.
We took cashflow from one profitable thing and used it to buy more profitable things.
We didn’t need pitch decks.
We needed P&Ls.
If you want to know what kind of businesses I look for today, go read:
👉 What Buyers Like Tiny.com Look For
Let me guess.
You raised a round.
Posted the announcement.
Got 400 likes and a few “🔥🔥🔥” comments from other founders doing the same.
Then the silence sets in.
Because raising money isn’t the game.
Keeping it is.
We’ve all seen the guy who raised $12M and now runs a LinkedIn growth agency to pay rent.
Don’t be that guy.
Early on, I picked a different path.
I call it the boring business playbook:
We built Metalab this way.
Dribbble, same thing.
Even Mateina ; boring on the surface, wildly profitable underneath.
Want the full philosophy?
👉 Bootstrapped, Not Broken
No investors.
No product roadmap.
No growth team.
Just:
No one cared.
But it paid for my life.
Here’s what I tell founders now:
Build something that funds you, not your investors’ next fund.
And if you're ready to sell it someday?
Guess what buyers care about:
👉 Thinking of Selling? 7 Signs Your Business Is Ready for a Quiet Acquisition
But here's the truth:
I’d rather own a $3M business that nets $1M
than a $30M business that nets nothing.
I’ve done both.
One of them feels like freedom.
The other feels like a performance review with 5 VCs and a CFO you didn’t hire.
We live in a world obsessed with raising.
But the real question is:
Can your business survive without more money?
If the answer is no, you don’t need a term sheet.
You need a better margin.
Raise your prices.
Cut the fat.
Buy your freedom back, one basis point at a time.
I didn’t get rich because I was smart.
I got rich because I didn’t raise VC, and I never let my margin slip.
Here’s where to start:
Get Your Copy of Never Enough at https://www.neverenough.com
And if you’re still thinking of raising capital, maybe start by raising your standards.
See you next time,
–Andrew
