I find this article really useful

1) IF YOU’RE A DAVID: This post is SO inspiring that some Davids out there might decide to give it their all (and then some!) even if their idea or business acumen REALLY can’t compete with the Goliath’s in their field, which would just be tragic in the end. So while I too believe in confidence and chutzpah and in little fish sticking it to the big ones, I also believe in doing your homework and being smart enough to realize whether you have a strong enough differentiator to be able to compete against Goliaths or not (even ones that have “lost their soul”), and to know when to humbly call it a day or to push on with all your might despite scary odds.

2) IF YOU’RE A GOLIATH: Right now I’m working in the VC world (and learning a tremendous amount) and in the world of VCs, it’s rare for little startups not to aspire to become Goliaths themselves one day (or in VC speak “unicorns”). So as some of the other commenters already pointed out, many of the advantages you might have as a David are the very ones you’ll probably lose as you inch towards Goliathness, so in order to stay gianormous and NOT lose your soul along the way, you’d do well to bottle the magic that helped you in the early days and sprinkle it around every once in a while.

Loved this post, sharing in all my social channels now! 🙂

I replied to that investor that because you are already an investor in our competing company, meeting you would be a waste of time. He replied, “Oh no no! I’ve already exited from it a couple of years ago.”

I, then, went to meet him. After introductions, his first statement was, “Stop whatever you are building and you should go and join that bigger company (in which I was an investor).”

I was taken aback. What the eff!

I politely replied, “Of course, there are some overlaps between their product and ours, but we are onto building a bit different and a bit new. We’re not building this to shut it down.”

He told me straight, “Look Mohit, that company has already built a car, which is running at high speed. Why do you want to build your own car? Why not, join them?”

I replied, “One – we are not building the same car as them. Two – just because someone has built a car doesn’t mean no one else should try and build a better car.”

He got offended. I could see it on his face. His smile vanished. And he said looking directly in my eyes, “Mohit, young people like you are idiots. You guys feel you can beat big guys. You fool!”

My smile vanished too. I brought my fake-smile-mixed-with-disgust-face up and said, “No big guy is born big. They become big by beating the previous big guy. Going by your logic, big companies should never lose. Is it what you mean?”

He stopped amid sipping his coffee and looked like as if a big guy (he) was just beaten by a small young lad (me) in arguments. He said next, “I am going to invest in you and then merge you with that big company. And not even respectfully. I’d say, ‘Fuck you!’ when merging you with them, Mohit. Big guys like me stay big.”

I was taken a bit aback. I’ve never heard such things before from the mouths of people who were known as angels in the startup ecosystem. I didn’t want to create a scene, thus I replied, “Yes, I need money for my startup. It’s just that, I don’t need YOUR money. I’ll manage on my own.”

And I stood up to leave.

Next day (Christmas of 2014), I found that everyone who had earlier committed us money for our angel round backed off at once (we were raising $325k and had got commitments for over 60% of the amount). I was shocked! What might have happened in a single day. People who were so happy to be part of our product were suddenly showing me eyes.

After a few weeks, I got to know from someone that that angel investor whom I had offended was an influencer in the ecosystem and he made sure every commitment that we had received should be nullified.

After weeks of hardwork, meetings, traveling, we were back to square one. Moreover, we were running out of cash too. We were on verge of shutting down (had no cash), when I decided, “I’m NOT giving up because of one setback. I’m gonna fight back.”

Next day, I pulled out all my saved pocket money that I had been saving for last few years (for last 6 years, my dad is giving me $20/week as pocket money. Not because I need it, but because he feels like giving it to me. I simply accept it and keep it safe).

It wasn’t much, but enough to give us a runway of next few months. We ran like crazy, got our product out of beta, got initial traction, the vision started to shape up and slowly slowly we were getting right on track.

Right now, we are again raising the angel round (not from Indian angels because I am not sure who would be part of that big guy’s influence group) and while it is difficult to raise money from international investors while in India, we are headstrong to not give up.

I know it will be difficult. But good thing about something being difficult is that it is not impossible. And whatever is not impossible, is possible. 🙂

(Hopefully, we will find some angels for our product within next one month and will get one step closer to winning.)

***hustling continues***

I am about to marry the CEO of Virtualplex who is a serial entrepreneur and visionary when it comes to solving problems with data (and a lot more). I’ve been there with him for the last 17 years as he and his partner have developed tools and systems that are so against the grain of conventional practices that it could make your head spin.

Dedication, commitment, self-motivation and persistence are attributes I think the two of you have in common, along with brilliance.

Again, thanks for this article > I’ve sent it out to two entrepreneurs that I personally know and tweeted it too.

Here’s to you and your team today! May you continue to grow and be more successful than you could ever imagine.