Do Not Chase Investors Before Chasing Customers

Sridhar Vembu built Zoho with zero outside funding to a billion-dollar ARR SaaS company. I wrote the first piece ever written on him in 2007 in my Forbes column. No one had yet heard of Zoho. But VCs were already salivating.

Sridhar validated my philosophy of how I advise startups when he came to see me in 2007.

My philosophy has remained the same at its core.

Do not go to VCs as beggars. Go as Kings.

Do not chase Investors before chasing Customers.

Make VCs salivate.

Make VCs chase YOU.

I have used this over and over again.

We have thousands of case studies in 1Mby1M that offer nuances of this strategy.

Now we’re in the age of AI. 

It is getting easier to bootstrap to significant validation.

The bar is going to get higher to get VCs to chase you as a result.

And it is essential that you have a laser-sharp positioning to attract both customers and VCs.

If you need help with your Positioning, join 1Mby1M Premium.

We specialize in great positioning work.

Let’s discuss. 

What is your unfair advantage? How do you differentiate? What is your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)? What is your target segment? What stands in the way of Product-Market Fit (PMF)? Can you find Repeatability? Can you get to Velocity? What is your Total Available Market (TAM)?