“What’s wrong with making money quietly? Actually there’s a lot of upside to it.” — Ryan Smith, Qualtrics

Don’t Listen to the Press

Fundraising is glamorized by the press to make you think it is part of the checklist for your startup. They make it look sexy. This is wrong. What is really sexy is to do it all on your own and raise money only when you need it. Even better is to be profitable and to have investors lined up begging to put money in.

A great tale of “real” tech entrepreneurship comes out of Provo, Utah. It is the story of Qualtrics, an enterprise data company. Qualtrics went 9 years running profitible without raising a dime. They had weeks go by recieveing three investment inquiries a day. In 2012, they finally gave in and closed a $70MM round with Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Read the story of Qualtrics here.

If you find yourself contemplating whether you need to raise money or not, read through these great articles and essays. Then make a decision. Chances are you should not raise money. Bootstrap as long as you can and be more like Qualtrics.

How much traction before raising

Advice from Sequoia founders on fundraising

Understanding the VC

And of course, Paul Graham’s synopsis on fundraising

Cheers.