This is actually a story I’ve been following for a while.
Two video game companies came along nearly at the same time with bold projects. “Star Citizen” and “Cyberpunk 2077”. I’ve watched the two work as different companies with different strategies.
Star Citizen is criticized for taking 300 Million crowd-funded dollars and pushing their release date (and subsequent stumbles) from 2014 to ..well... Hasn’t happened yet. They manage to keep thousands of loyal fans and crowdfunders happy still because they refuse to release garbage.
2077 just told everyone to “relax, we’ve got this covered”. They were investor funded and (follow me here..) “Had to” tell the investors that everything was great.
As a small business owner who has been working with investors for awhile I’m now proving that investors are a bad idea. It’s a bad idea because investors aren’t interested in the product, they are interested in the money. And often what I present to my potential customers is different than what I present to the investors. Very skittish people.
If you’re interested, examine the two groups. Compare and contrast.
Interesting.
I was one of the owners of a tech company in the early 90’s. We grew rapidly and took it public. We had an instant market for our stock.
But we learned that we had two audiences to please: customers and public shareholders.
It’s a lot of work to take on investors. Does that match your experience?
PM me if it’s easier.