This is a quote from Graham Hill, who was recently on the Venture Voice podcast. Hill started a business called TreeHugger.com using his own money, and sold it several years later to the Discovery Channel for $10 million.
I started the company which became IssueTrak back in 1992, with no outside investment. Not having a lot of money in the beginning can be a good thing. It forces you to focus on what the market wants. And like Graham Hill says in the podcast, the early experiences determine the DNA of the business.Â
In our case, doing extensive custom programming early on forced us to listen closely to what customers need so that we could implement an effective software solution. Today we continue to add features the customers ask for.
I highly recommend the Venture Voice series by Greg Galant.  Here’s a link to the Graham Hill podcast. I especially enjoyed some of the comments he made at the very end. He said too much money can be bad for a company. And you don’t need to be a non-profit to do good in the world. A for-profit company can also be a vehicle for staying true to one’s values, and can give one the wherewithal to make meaningful contributions to society.
