Entrepreneur Dysfunctions in Cartoons: Concept vs. Business Funding

By now, I think I have got through to you: Investors fund businesses, not concepts.

So how do you actually build a business without funding?

Let me introduce you to five entrepreneurs who can show you how:

• Raising a Series A with $10m in the Bank: Dean Stoecker, CEO of Alteryx
• Bootstrapping to $25m then raising a $23m Series A: Andy Chou, CoFounder of Coverity
• How to get to a $20m Pre-money Valuation in Series A: Tableau Software CEO Christian Chabot
• Bootstrapping to $1m, then growing to $40m with venture capital: Ryan Allis, CEO of iContact
• The Montana Mogul: RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte ($5 million bootstrapped revenue; Series A at ~$100 million valuation)

Ryan Allis built iContact with no financing to $1M in revenue, then raised significant venture capital, amassed solid revenue, and eventually sold the company for $169 million to Vocus.

Greg Gianforte took RightNow public, and eventually, Oracle acquired the company.

Tableau Software also went public.

Alteryx and Coverity are still private, but with substantial revenue.

If you read the case studies I have provided above, you will have a chance to simulate the experience of sitting down across from each of these entrepreneurs and ask them how they did it.

Try it. I promise you, they will teach you important lessons.

Cartoon: Book by Sramana Mitra and Irina Patterson. Art by Mike Varouhas.

This segment is a part in the series : Entrepreneur Dysfunctions in Cartoons