Investors fascinate entrepreneurs. The logic of multiple Paris, where a handful of success compensates for a majority of failures, seems to offer a perfect strategy. But entrepreneurship and investment do not follow the same rules. A VC manages capital, a founder manages time, teams and a tight execution.
VCs play in wallet, entrepreneurs play their survival
The VC model is based on the law of large numbers: out of ten investments, seven will fail, two will report modestly, and one will explode, covering the losses. It is not an anomaly, it is the system. An investor can finance a hundred startups and wait for three to pierce worldwide. An entrepreneur, him, has only one company. He cannot afford to see 70 % of his decisions fail.
Where a VC can allocate its capital depending on the performance observed, a founder must manage Son Runwaythat is to say the time he has left before being short of liquidity. He cannot multiply bets hoping that one will save the business. He must do Gradual choices, based on concrete signals, and maximize each available resource.
The illusion of “the more we test, the better”
Some entrepreneurs badly interpret the culture of the test and experimentation, thinking that multiplying initiatives at random guarantees success. Gold, Too many poorly calibrated tests exhaust the teams, disperse efforts and blur strategic vision. Testing has only value if we know how to measure and draw usable conclusions.
VCS invest in asymmetrical bets where The gain potential is infinitely higher than the initial bet. An entrepreneur who applies this without precautionary logic may scatter and weaken his operational base. A test is only valid by alignment with a specific objective.
The real lesson of VCs: optimize the upper without compromising the viability
If we had to retain something from Venture Capital, it is not the blind risk taking, but the ability to navigate uncertainty without sacrificing the essentials. A good founder knows:
- Define a clear experimental perimeterwhere each test has a measurable goal.
- Preserve a solid traction coreby ensuring that a market segment already responds to its product.
- Allocate his resources with rigorby refusing the fashion effect or the distractions that exhaust the treasury without clear return.
Entrepreneurship requires Resilience and rigorous risk management. It is not a question of accumulating failures hoping for a miraculous success, but of adopting a method of rapid and structured learning.
Do not try to think like a VC, think like an entrepreneur
And the entrepreneur cannot reply the mechanisms of an investor. On the contrary, he must Build a project capable of attracting these same investors. It means Make iterative decisions, adjust without burning your cash, and above all, ensure that each action strengthens the credibility and value of the company.
The venture capital finances adventures. The entrepreneur must build a business. It is not the same job, and above all, it is not the same relationship with risk.
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