The higher the valuation, the less the dilution. So founders should only raise enough (with some cushion) to hit some milestones.

create sticky products that help keep customers from switching to our competitors’ offerings. Once a customer, whether a business or a consumer, has adopted a sticky solution, there are considerable costs associated with switching to a new solution, traditionally called switching costs.

However, we do not train business students in the art and science of discovery. The narratives that b-school students are trained to create are based on pre-existing information, on givens, rather than on incomplete datasets that are ever-changing based in current reality. Meanwhile, across campus in the journalism school, future reporters are bein

an advantage unless you can protect it by preventing copycats.

1. the need for cash to grow; and 2) the desire to avoid dilution.

This can be a challenging aspect of the job for young VCs: pushing back on the founders’ ideas about which customer segments to target. A surprising number of early stage startups are not sure (yet) which market they should go after. In fact, this can be the source of great conflict. Agreeing on which markets to pursue can be an important part of t

scalability, which refers to a startup’s potential to grow quickly and achieve a desired exit.

We have two options to revise our product/market fit: change the product or revise the target market. On the former, we could add features so that we are addressing our customers’ true pain points. On the latter, we could change our target customer to newly constructed hospitals.

VC firms often come together in a deal by syndicating, meaning having multiple VC firms participate in an investment round.