Maven's $76M Funding Trap
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A discussion about how large funding rounds can potentially harm businesses, using Maven as a case study.
"Maven raised like $30 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Serena Williams and Jimmy Iovine - like every cool person you can imagine. They raised all this money and I haven't heard about them in a long time. They raised $76 million total.
No offense to Taylor, I hope they succeed, but there's something about companies with this pattern: cool idea, usually underrepresented founder, going after a space that white tech startups ignore, then raises mega round from celebrity investors, and then you don't hear about them.
Too much money can break companies. This happened with Tristan Walker's company Walker Brands. It was a great idea, a great model, but when you raise that much money it puts so much growth pressure on the business it can sometimes break it. I've seen this happen several times now, I start to notice a pattern.
Your cap table is one of the very few things in business that is an irreversible decision. It's very challenging to make up for that mistake."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.