aberba

In 2017, a CEO friend told me I was "wasting my life" on my tiny startup. He had raised $30M in VC. His co-founders' families had put in $2M. They were supposed to be on their way to $1B. He tried to recruit me. Here's what happened: Him: "We'll be worth a billion soon. A small piece of equity here will be worth way more than your big stake in that tiny thing you're building." I told him no. Him: "You're not ambitious enough. It's been 5 years and your startup isn't going anywhere. You're too talented to be thinking so small." Me: "Maybe you're right. But it's MY startup. You work for the VCs. I'd rather stay stuck on my own thing than work on yours." I told him what I wanted: mid-20s ARR SaaS with under 40 people. He thought I was crazy. Eventually, he shut down his VC-backed company after burning through $30M. That same month, I booked my first $1M profit month. This is what I took from that: t Stay in the game. If you're small but profitable, you can outlast almost everyone. Time is your biggest advantage. Most VC-backed companies have 18-36 months of runway. You have forever. The world beats you down when you're small. Everyone told me I was thinking too small. That I should raise money. That I'd never build anything meaningful bootstrapped. They were all wrong. Skills compound. Every year you spend building, you get better at product, sales, hiring, and understanding customers. It’s invisible for years. Then suddenly it's not. Survival is the strategy. Most founders quit at year 3 or 5. Stay alive long enough and your odds skyrocket. You just need one breakthrough. Don't let anyone tell you you're wasting your life. The CEO who said I wasn't ambitious enough? He doesn't say that anymore. You don’t need VC money. You need time and one breakthrough. Keep building.