James Xabregas
1 min readMay 23, 2024

I’m not sure if you actually understand how fundraising and exits works. Founders don’t get to cash out at the next fund raise. They only get to cash out if they get acquired or go to IPO. Typically they have a minimum 4 year period that they need to stay on with the company to be fully vested in their stock. The average time to exit for a startup is typically 7-10 years. The reason they are focused on building an MVP and showing traction is so that they can get investment to help them continue on the journey. With high growth tech startups the investment amount at each raise typically only provides for a 12 month runway, and often less at the early stages. The goal for these types of startups is to grow them relatively quickly so they can dominate a new market, often much faster then what they would grow if they were a small cashflow positive bootstrapped business.

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James Xabregas
James Xabregas

Written by James Xabregas

Manipulating electrons for fun and profit. Thoughts on tech, startups, politics, life. Co-founder of Braiv.co

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