When I built my first company in the late-90s the prevalent mantra was: Get as many eyeballs (the 90’s lingo for users) as quickly as possible. We didn’t worry about making money all that much or even having figured out a business model — as the Internet back then was perceived as a land grab.
Alas the land was often worth nothing.
I find it interesting to see that history seems to repeat itself…
Fueled by a (very) few prominent businesses which are destined to scale at an exponential rate (or as the new word du jour has it: blitzscale), entrepreneurs around the globe seem to believe that it is a valid strategy to focus on building a product without a business model or path to profitability.
Sadly the outcome of this strategy is nearly always a failed startup and burned out founders.
It might sound distinctly old school — but figuring out how to make money and focus on getting to positive cash flow is (for the vast majority of companies) by far the best strategy. Praying for a VC who will fund your company until you are “too big to fail” is not.
With that: Why not spend some cycles on refining your business model, pricing, customer acquisition strategy and cashflow planning?
I know — doesn’t sound sexy. But building a growing company which is kicking it for years to come is surely sexy as hell.