from Hacker News

Are you VC-funded? No, we're profitable

by jabo on 3/18/25, 11:08 PM with 38 comments

• by kylecazar on 3/19/25, 12:58 AM

  "Now the same question seems to be coming from a position of customers trying to determine how much of a risk they're willing tolerate when doing business with VC-funded companies."

  To be fair, this was one customer's question, not necessarily a trend.

  The merits of taking VC are debatable. But I don't think we're at a point where potential customers broadly are skeptical of a funded startup. If nothing else, it means someone, somewhere has vetted you and thinks you can deliver.

• by light_triad on 3/19/25, 12:26 AM

  It's a bit of a non sequitur: having a profitable business is ideal but if a startup can grow fast with VC money it can be acquired for 40x (Wiz) - 1000x (WhatsApp) revenue even if not profitable

• by MortyWaves on 3/19/25, 1:06 AM

  I’m expecting this post to vanish from the home page any time now

• by nisten69 on 3/18/25, 11:52 PM

  Gotta love the feeling of having infinite runway.

• by jascination on 3/18/25, 11:58 PM

  It's a cute quote, but it seems about 5 years out of date. There was a golden period for a while there that indie hackers and self-funded devs could create a useful product and grow it themselves and could 'beat' VCs.

  But now you can create some AI generated slop in a day that used to take months. Being an indie hacker used to be a sort of badge of honour, now it's where everyone starts.

  I think the VC-backed companies who have budgets to do actual marketing, actual sales, actual outreach beyond "I have a good following on X, I'm gonna sell them stuff" will win in the end.

  As a customer, for me I don't care whether the company is profitable, I care about whether it works, whether it's in my budget, whether the company will be around in 2 years regardless of if the founder loses their passion for it.

• by guywithahat on 3/19/25, 12:16 AM

  It’s cool seeing a Houston startup too; I feel like the only ones I’ve ever seen have been self-funded

• by CyberMacGyver on 3/19/25, 3:20 AM

  Where do people find good Indie hacking solopreneur support ?

• by paxys on 3/18/25, 11:55 PM

  VC-funded startups go out of business.

  Bootstrapped startups go out of business.

  While there is a large gap in the two models in terms of finances, operations and everything else, trying to argue that customers should pick your company purely because you haven't raised money shows that you are either deliberately being insincere or know nothing about the industry, neither of which are great selling points.

  If you want to compete, do it on the basis of features and value.