https://t.co/LJcq8xVkrk
Big thanks to everyone who's supporting us!
@PaysiteManager
Just sold another Video: Spider Gwen Missing Her Halloween Party.
https://t.co/LJcq8xVkrk
My biggest mistake as CEO almost killed my company.
Don’t fall for the same trap.
During our Series C at Classy, we had multiple interested investors.
But only one offered a valuation that was 20% higher than the others.
Like most founders, we went with the highest valuation.
Big mistake.
The next 3 years were hell:
- He tried to push the founding team out
- The culture tanked
- Performance dropped
- Everyone was miserable
It was like having a cancer we couldn't get rid of.
Eventually, I rallied our existing investors to buy him out.
The company rebounded almost immediately and later hit $1B.
But I learned a brutal lesson:
The right investor at a lower valuation is infinitely better than the wrong investor at a higher one.
When raising capital, don’t judge investors by the size of the checks they can write.
Instead, evaluate them based on:
- Strong culture fit
- Aligned vision for the future
- Track record of supporting founders
Whatever you do, don’t get caught up in the valuation game.
The wrong investor is never worth those few extra zeros.