I am curious if anyone raised capital and wish they didn't. Not because they got bad investors, but particularly because of the difference in running a self funded company (complete control) vs raising (and potentially having expectations, rules, etc...). Could you please share your experience specific to why not raising would or wouldn't have been better, particularly if you didn't need the funds?<p>I know how some say funds help you grow faster, or raising helps you "hire" an investor you otherwise couldn't hire. I'm not really interested in those factors. More so on the differences of dynamics independent of those.
If you have any doubts that raising money is a good idea, you shouldn't raise money. In fact there's a good chance you won't.<p>There's no need to overanalyze it or weigh the pitfalls. Only raise money if you're already certain it's the right choice. If you're still asking "but how do I know?", you shouldn't raise money.<p>Just keep growing your customer ramp. You'll know when the time is right.
I have a corollary to this question, via this survey on VCs trying to identify which ones people would go back to or would want their investment.<p><a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/hackernews" rel="nofollow">https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/hackernews</a>
Yes we raised over $500k from angels at my last startup and it was the worst decision we ever made. Instead of letting us build a business..we were forced to scale without product market fit.