New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

As an entrepreneur, your most precious resource is your time and how you invest it. You can invest your time trying to get customers (by solving their problems) and/or you can invest your time trying to get investors. The more time you spend getting customers (selling your product), the less time you will need to spend getting investors (selling your stock). And if you spend enough time getting customers, you will not need investors. And just at the point that you don’t need investors is when they will start pestering you to let them invest. But of course by then you may not want them or need them.

It also helps to know what the odds are in terms of selling stock. The data is hard to come by and always a bit vague, but it’s been widely and variously reported that only 1 in 4,000 entrepreneurs seeking funding get funded. A typical VC firm will often say that they only invest in 1 of every 200 – 500 companies they meet with. And they refuse to take a lot of meetings. Let’s just say your odds of getting funded are extremely low. Somewhere in the 0.25% to 0.025% range. Especially if you just have an idea and not a working solution. Especially if you are by yourself and do not have a management team.  Especially if you do not have any customers. Especially if you have never led a startup before. Zero chance.  Nada.  

Your odds of landing a paying customer are way higher if you have a viable solution. So go get a customer. Spend your time selling product, not stock.  Chances are, you will get really creative.  And that's what being an entrepreneur is all about.