I speak to lots of founders and their eyes light up when I tell them this: The greatest chance of making your first $1M or $10M is creating some cash-flowing internet assets and taking dividends. Keep team small, AI-powered, global, use audiences & communities to power distribution. Cash-flow is an exit every year. This is something I try to never forget. You don't need to "pray for an exit" and hope Google buys you for $500M. And you don't need permission from VCs for a secondary transaction. Basically, you wire yourself some money and renovate your house. It's beautiful. You don't have the safety net of a bank account of $3M from VCs. I will say, I miss that. But the mentality away from "burning cash" to "growing cash" is what will make you wealthy. And once your eyes open up to a dividend model, you'll realize it's a healthier way of doing business for the majority of businesses. It's an organic way of doing business. Healthier for customers to your team. I love it.
My team put together a free 5 day email course on building a company without investors using the "ACP funnel" around building internet audiences/communities. If that's your thing, you can grab it below: communityempire.co/free-course
@gregisenberg Sounds like a discussion about intensity and timeframes. I've been slowly stashing away the excess cash in index funds and SIPP's. Cant exactly sell a personal brand, but the margins are great and it's a lot of fun.
@gregisenberg I’m at a stage where it won’t be too hard to raise a couple millions dollars. But I have to resist that. That’s not what I’m loooking for when I first start it out. I do it for the love, the freedom, and the chance to push myself to the limit.
@gregisenberg super good VC founders i know 5 years in take $1M secondary that's only $200k a year if you can't make $200k a year in a cashflowing business you shouldn't be doing this and during that time no quality of life that's 6% of your life living terribly make it make sense
@gregisenberg Reminds me of this quote – "The best way to predict the future is to create it." - Abraham Lincoln It's all about taking charge and building your own success.
@gregisenberg What are some of your better examples of operations that netted best dividends?
@gregisenberg It's the only way of doing business IMO. Unless you want to rely on the kindness of strangers.