It is shocking to me how the game is played between entrepreneur and investors. I was so wrong about how it all works. It is a literal game of bullshit being exchanged over a common framework.

OP here. I call bullshit to what you say.

For example, have you had to put together a 5 year plan? If so, then you've engaged in bullshit. Nobody on God's green earth can possibly put together any form of realistic plan for a startup - because that means knowing and controlling for all possible risk factors.

The investors - unless they're truly dumb - know that the numbers progressively get more bullshit as you go beyond year 1.

You should know the same. Yet the investors require 10x to 40x return in a 3 to 5 year time frame.

The investors know the numbers get "progressively more bullshit", but not all growth projections are equally unrealistic. Being able to explain clearly how you're going to go from A to B to C to D and how much money each step takes is key. It's not about having a plan that's realistic or accurate, but about demonstrating a solid understanding of what it takes to reach certain revenue milestones.

You need a good understanding of the market to make a plausible-sounding multi-year estimate. A few years from now you'll be in a 10x better position to make bullshit estimates like these, simply because of experience in the market segment. A plan is not supposed to be prescient or all encompassing either, just plausible.

If you don't believe me, see if you can get a business undergrad to make a 5 year plan for your company. Their plan will be bullshit -- just like yours -- but their bullshit plan will be objectively no-question-about-it 100x worse.

A plan that is not realistic or accurate, how is that not bullshit?

A plan which makes use of understanding the market - which there is no information on because you're a startup - how is that not bullshit?A plan that is only plausible - how is that different than bullshit?

If you were attempting to convince me that you indeed have not engaged in bullshit, you have not yet succeeded.

All you've convinced me of thus far is that you understand the bullshit expected by the other side.

OP here. You're not understanding all of what I'm saying. The bullshit is on both sides - I'm not excusing myself from the label.

I already pointed out one example above: the 5 year plan.

Another ridiculous example: I sweated for years to get funding. I squeezed the parts of my operational plan I personally know so hard it emitted ultrasonic sounds.

Now that I've actually gotten a major partner and gotten over the business model/credibility hump - the talk is all about making sure enough money is raised.

The original 1 year budget has exploded - the net burn until break even has nearly tripled, but there appears to be no problem anymore with raising the first round for year 1(which is 4x what I had sweated blood for, for 4 years).

Down is up and up is down.

Maybe you tried to plan for breaking even and profit, and the partners are planning for growth. growth requires cash.

I agree. The biggest pain in my ass today is raising money, and that pain comes from not being able to grow the market-traction because a lot of investors really seem to contradict each other regarding any "want" other than when it comes to a giant early-stage return, which is really counterproductive and counter intuitive for businesses that are focused on the Why first.

We're about 2 years in, pivoted twice, and now have several giant "paying" clients that we never thought would be our target market. Our market timing is perfect "it seems", we are changing a major long-standing industry successfully, and even though our product is being picked up faster than we can deliver, we need to focus on going from family investment source direct to explosive pipeline growth. It also "seems" like the last thing we need is the BS show with investors feeling more important beyond the successful growth to date and sweat equity in place.

I also call bullshit on the investors saying "they're the ones taking all the risk". No, the girls and guys that put two years in, spending their "only" money and finding the right product, pitch and passion to find a market worth a healthy return are the ones that have taken all the risk.

So, how does an entrepreneur maintain the passion through the fire swamp of investor BS?

FYI, my wife and I are active seed investors in other peoples start-ups, too. But we respond to passion balanced by simplicity being driven by humble people. We don't pretend that our money "makes great start-ups". Great people make great start-ups.

I actually had one VC tell me that he wanted 30% ownership just for participating in raising funds for us because he said that they guy that brings the money is more important than the company, idea, or execution people (this VC's firm is fairly enormous). It felt like he was trying to get a co-founder position to double-dip his intended investment. I just chalked it up to "everyone says stupid shit sometimes, but that doesn't make them stupid shits".

I would LOVE to see a funding platform that lets entrepreneurs tap into seed cash without all the non-sense, kind-of like a cross between Kima, Kiva, and Kickstarter, but with disclosure, reporting, notes, and equity integrated.