Early-stage founders, if you've been thinking about raising capital to get your company off the ground... good luck with that.
1) The macroeconomic environment appears to be getting bleaker by the day. I'm regularly talking to VCs asking for help in syndicating their deals to my network. That's a worrying sign.
2) The short-term outlook is more 2002 than 2009. There's no quick rebound here. The COVID years were DotComBoom-level dysfunctional.
3) The low-interest-rate-driven free-cash environment of the early 2020s led an entire generation of entrepreneurs to forget that early-stage VCs fund DISRUPTION. Your company is probably not disruptive.
4) That's okay. How can you get to a million-dollar run rate? And do it profitably? And pay yourself a living wage as CEO?
5) Figure those questions out and there will be a dozen different opportunities for growth, including (perhaps) venture capital. But maybe you'll get there and decide you don't need it.