Founders push revenue first
Several founder threads this week stressed running companies on revenue and self‑sufficiency rather than chasing outside funding, with CX Cecilio posting a short video on prioritizing control and revenue on April 15. (x.com) An investor thread from @hoidya_ urged pressure‑testing demand and offered 1‑on‑1 deck reviews as a practical way to validate products before scaling. (x.com)
A small but visible group of founders spent this week arguing that startups should chase customers before capital and keep tighter control of their companies. (x.com) On April 15, Craig Cecilio, the founder and chief executive of DiversyFund, posted a short video on X telling founders to prioritize revenue and control over outside money. Investor @hoidya_ made a similar case in an April thread, urging founders to pressure-test demand and offering one-on-one pitch deck reviews. (x.com 1) (x.com 2) The pitch lands in a venture market that is still selective even after funding rebounded in 2025. Carta said Series A deal count fell 18 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2025, cash raised dropped 23 percent to $4.7 billion, and the median valuation still climbed to $47.9 million. (carta.com) That combination has changed what investors expect from young companies. Carta said some investors who once backed startups with less than $1 million in annual recurring revenue now look for closer to $5 million or even $10 million before a Series A round. (carta.com) The broader funding picture is not a simple retreat from venture capital. Crunchbase said global startup funding rose 30 percent in 2025 to $425 billion, but the increase was concentrated in a handful of giant rounds, with five companies raising $84 billion, or 20 percent of the year’s total. (news.crunchbase.com) That concentration leaves a different market for most founders than the headline totals suggest. Crunchbase said about half of all global venture funding in 2025 went to artificial intelligence companies, while Mercury said its May 2025 survey covered 1,500 United States founders and executives at companies under six years old. (news.crunchbase.com) (mercury.com) Mercury found that founders were still optimistic, but they were also adjusting how they operate. In that survey, 87 percent said confidence in their company’s financial prospects had improved from 2024, and the report described funding and hiring strategies as more flexible and diversified. (mercury.com) The pressure to build companies that survive longer is showing up outside venture data too. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor said in its 2025-2026 report that startup activity is strong across 53 economies, but too few new ventures are making the jump to established firms, a gap the group linked in part to access to finance. (gemconsortium.org) That is the backdrop for the “revenue first” message now moving through founder circles: fewer easy rounds for ordinary startups, higher proof thresholds, and more pressure to show paying demand before scaling. (carta.com) (gemconsortium.org)
