3 Comments

Another great article, Mr. J.

The biggest problem with most VC's I find is that they lack the true deep understanding needed of this industry. I see some (not all) real flea-infested dogs getting funding, run by shady people that care more about the panache of the VC funding press release and less about how they are going to run their business properly or turn a profit.

Also, more and more people I know with freight tech startups are choosing to either self-bootstrap from the start, or they sell one chunk of stock to a single industry pro (i.e. a single individual as an investor) that can add lots of value without all the noise a VC (or several VC's) brings.

Finally, some of these same friends are asking themselves if it's better to have a smaller company, making say $1m to $5m in profits per year to the founder, with a smaller tight-knit team (i.e. less headaches), rather than just continuously chasing unprofitable growth and managing hundreds or thousands of people (i.e. LOTS of headaches), just so some VC can exit at a huge profit.

The wrong VC will ruin the life of any self respecting human - all in the interest of THEIR pocketbook.

Young CEO's should think long and hard about who they choose to dance with. Once the decision is made it's impossible to turn back.

Tim Higham

CEO

AscendTMS

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Couldn’t agree more Tim!

Cheers to that

Alvin Ea

CEO

Haulio

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Another great article, Mr. J.

The biggest problem with most VC's I find is that they lack the true deep understanding needed of this industry. I see some (not all) real flea-infested dogs getting funding, run by shady people that care more about the panache of the VC funding press release and less about how they are going to run their business properly or turn a profit.

Also, more and more people I know with freight tech startups are choosing to either self-bootstrap from the start, or they sell one chunk of stock to a single industry pro (i.e. a single individual as an investor) that can add lots of value without all the noise a VC (or several VC's) brings.

Finally, some of these same friends are asking themselves if it's better to have a smaller company, making say $1m to $5m in profits per year to the founder, with a smaller tight-knit team (i.e. less headaches), rather than just continuously chasing unprofitable growth and managing hundreds or thousands of people (i.e. LOTS of headaches), just so some VC can exit at a huge profit.

The wrong VC will ruin the life of any self respecting human - all in the interest of THEIR pocketbook.

Young CEO's should think long and hard about who they choose to dance with. Once the decision is made it's impossible to turn back.

Tim Higham

CEO

AscendTMS

Expand full comment