Raising Capital Isn’t the Win You Think It Is
It's even been referred to as "failure"!
There’s a strange phenomenon in startup culture.
If you say: “We’ve just raised £2 million in our seed round.” Everyone goes wild - applause, press features, LinkedIn likes, investor hype etc etc.
But if say: “We’ve just reached profitability.” People won’t even bat an eyelid.
Because who cares? What’s so glamorous about being profitable? Every business is supposed to be profitable. But £2m!! That’s amazing!!
Think about it though…since when did raising money become more impressive than making money?
I recently sat down with Anthony Rose, CEO of SeedLegals, on my podcast. He said something that really threw me for a moment:
“Raising capital is just a sign that you’ve failed to bootstrap your business.”
I was shocked. I didn’t expect the CEO of the company that has helped fund over 50,000 startups in the UK tell me that raising capital actually means you’ve FAILED.
It felt so controversial! But I loved it. It was the opposite of what TechCrunch and fintech bros talk about. It flipped everything on its head.
So it made me wonder… why are we still glorifying the raise?!
And more importantly: what should founders actually be focused on?
The Capital Raising Obsession
Spend 10 minutes on LinkedIn and you’ll find:
Founders celebrating pre-seed rounds before they’ve validated product-market fit
Startups announcing VC funding like they’ve won an Olympic medal
Entire personal brands built around fundraising rather than revenue
And sure, raising money can be a milestone. It can open doors, accelerate growth, and attract talent.
But here’s the thing nobody wants to say out loud:
Raising money isn’t success. It’s a loan on your future performance. And if you spend it badly — it becomes a countdown to failure.
Why Do Founders Glorify Fundraising?
Let’s call out the psychology behind it:
1. External Validation Feels Safer Than Real Risk
Landing an investor gives you a stamp of approval. It looks like you're winning - even if you haven’t built a sustainable business yet.
2. It Feeds the Ego
Let’s be honest: saying “we raised £1.5M” sounds a lot sexier than “we’ve made £8K in MRR so far.” But the second is often a stronger indicator of business health.
3. It’s Public, Measurable, and Easy to Signal
Press love it. Platforms celebrate it. It gives people something quantifiable to cheer for. Unfortunately, those numbers say nothing about long-term success.
A study from CB Insights found that 70% of venture-backed startups fail - often after their first or second round of funding.Raising money is not a moat. It’s a spotlight. And if you’re not ready for it, it exposes every crack in your foundation.
What Anthony Rose Gets Right
Anthony isn’t anti-funding. He built SeedLegals to support founders through fundraising. But what he’s calling out, and what I fully agree with, is the mentality.
When you raise capital, you're not making money - you're spending someone else's.You're no longer just building a business. You're managing investor expectations, giving up equity, and setting yourself up for dilution and timelines you may not control.
And if you’ve skipped the hard part - proving your model, understanding your customer, building lean etc., you’ve traded your independence for a ticking clock.
What Founders Should Focus on Instead
Now, can you imagine if we made sustainable growth the new flex?
🙌🏽 Bootstrapped to the BEP (break-even point)
🙌🏽 Got the first 100 paying customers without any ad spend
🙌🏽 Team of 3 generating 6-figures
🙌🏽 Grew revenue 2x without external funding
These are the things that actually build strong businesses. And yet, they rarely go viral.
Founders should obsess less over raising rounds, and more over building something people will pay for.
So… Is Raising Capital Always Bad?
Of course not.
Sometimes it’s the smart move:
You’ve hit product-market fit and need to scale infrastructure
You're in a market where speed is a competitive advantage
You're building something truly capital-intensive (hardware, biotech, etc.)
But even then - the raise is not the goal. It’s a tool.
The best founders see capital as fuel for a fire that’s already burning - not a match for a pile of wet wood.
The N0BS Way: Building in the Real World
I started N0BS to have real conversations with founders. To create in-person spaces where people don’t just bang on about how many investors they have - they talk about:
What’s actually working
What’s flopped
What they’re scared to admit online
Because when you're face-to-face with people who are building quietly, profitably, and powerfully - you realise that funding isn't the prize.
Freedom is.
And often, raising capital trades that freedom for pressure.
How to Check If You’re Raising for the Right Reasons
Before you decide to go through the stress and the heartache (because that’s actually what’s involved) of fundraising, ask yourself a few questions first:
Could I hit my next milestone by improving conversion instead of burning capital?
Am I solving a real problem people are willing to pay for - or just scaling vanity metrics?
Do I want this money because I have a plan, or because I want validation?
And most importantly:
Is raising capital the smartest move for the business - or the most appealing one for my ego?
ZERO TO SOMETHING
This is Zero to Something - the place where we make sense of modern entrepreneurship one idea at a time.
Today’s something is this: raising capital might sound like a win, but it’s only a real victory if it fuels something sustainable.
Don’t chase the headline. Chase the health of your business. Don’t sell your soul for seed. Build something real - even if it’s slow.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
🎙️ Podcast: No Bullsh*t Talks - The Truth About Raising Money - What Founders Get Wrong with Anthony Rose
📘 The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - Still one of the best frameworks for validating before scaling
📕 Company of One by Paul Jarvis - A great mindset reset on building for sustainability over growth
📊 CB Insights Report: Why Startups Fail - The actual data behind post-funding collapses
📄 Blog: SeedLegals Funding Essentials - Useful if you are raising, but want to do it wisely