Jonathan Cogley on whether to take VC money or bootstrap. He suggests answering the following questions: “Do you want to do it all yourself? Do you have the resources and skills to do it on your own? Is the market opportunity compatible with a slower growth model?” His take: “These questions and key indicators help founders determine the necessary velocity of the business and which business strategy is most likely to be successful. Simply speaking, it helps founders calculate if they will run out of money and how much time they have before they do. From here founders can assess how much outside funding they will need to avoid this failure. Even though bootstrapping companies are famous for their long growth paths and the VC-funded ones are usually fast-tracked, there is no definitive timeline for either of them. Fundraising can be very slow and unpredictable and you may have to pitch 100 investors before getting any interest. Going down the entrepreneurial path is like sailing: you need to understand the prevailing winds and market conditions as you prepare for your voyage.”
Peter Coy in NYT: “The demise of cash isn’t the only development causing concern among economists. Most of the money we use today is issued by banks, not the government. When you pay with a credit card, a debit card or electronic funds transfer, the institution standing behind the transaction is a bank. In that sense, a virtual dollar in a checking account at your bank is fundamentally different from a dollar bill or four quarters in your fist. The next stage in the evolution of money will be the rise of nonbank money, including cryptocurrencies, which are encrypted virtual currencies that exist in online ledgers. But the evolution could be rocky. In the United States, credit and debit cards are deeply entrenched. Bitcoin and other volatile cryptocurrencies, while popular as speculative investments, by and large, aren’t useful for everyday transactions, making them more akin to financial assets than to money.”
Maria Ressa: “What are you willing to sacrifice for the Truth?” – in her Nobel Lecture
