Petopia's Fund Raising Saga
from the enter-the-wolves dept
Forbes is running a great story covering the process online pet store Petopia went through in attempting to raise money. While the story is sympathetic to her plight, and she definitely had some run-ins with folks who didn't seem ethically sound, they pretty much ignore the fact that she was trying to raise money for a project with tons of competitors and no real competitive advantage. The VCs she spoke to were probably right in suggesting she work with the other companies, and instead of positioning it (as the article did) as if they were a bunch of greedy bastards, it does make sense for VCs to do what they did in the situation. Where they could make things better is in how they interface and work with entrepreneurs.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
