Startup Timeline Underestimation

Alex Lieberman reflects on his experience raising funding for Morning Brew and shares key lessons about investor management and startup timelines. He emphasizes the challenges of having too many investors and the consistent underestimation of how long startup goals actually take to achieve.

Key Points:

• Investor Management Lessons:

  • Had 28 individual investors with investments ranging from $2,500 to $100,000
  • Would have preferred "way fewer" investors if doing it again
  • Recommends vetting potential investors carefully: "try to suss out if these people are going to be difficult"
  • Some investors became "very difficult" during the business sale process

• Time Estimation in Startups:

  • "Time is a crazy thing in startups and you always think you can get more done in a shorter [period] of time"
  • Their investor deck showed a one-year plan that actually took nine years to accomplish
  • "We tried everything in that slide and took us nine years to try everything"
  • Most of the initiatives in their original plan ultimately did not work

• Funding Philosophy:

  • For media ventures, should "raise as little as humanly possible"
  • Morning Brew needed their $750,000 funding for operational expenses
  • Austin once nearly missed making payroll, highlighting the cash flow challenges