I took VC for my last company. I'm choosing not to do it this time around. What I'm working on has at least a planned ten year horizon at the outset, hopefully it extends beyond that (the cost is so low to do it, I can stay in it perpetually without concern, and have decided the end goal is worth it). It requires long-term planning and thinking, there will be no exit pursued. Venture capital is a mediocre option in that environment, they almost always need an exit (there are some prominent angels that will stay in long-term, be sure to filter for that upfront). Most venture capitalists will burn your corporate house down or drive you into a wall at 120mph in the pursuit of their homerun, whereas I'm willing to eat my time in the pursuit of getting where I want to go with it. If it takes years to get it right, that's ok. The other reason: I won't allow liquidity preferences, VC gets to ride in the same boat as every other share owner (or not at all). The last VC I took on met those terms, it's very difficult to find however.
If there's one thing all start-ups should conspire to abolish, it's liquidity preferences. Somewhere along the line, they all decided that putting their capital at risk in exchange for a potentially large return, wasn't a good enough arrangement. At that point they stopped being real investors and became financial engineers looking to play the angles to remove risk from their position and shift their risk to everyone else. You don't need venture capital that bad, such that shooting yourself in the face is the only way to go. Just say no.
"At that point they stopped being real investors and became financial engineers looking to play the angles to remove risk from their position and shift their risk to everyone else."
Sadly this seems to be the game being played by literally every person and their grandma these days. We need a mentality shift as a society in order to find real innovations and growth again, or else, well we're just digging our own graves really.
If there's one thing all start-ups should conspire to abolish, it's liquidity preferences. Somewhere along the line, they all decided that putting their capital at risk in exchange for a potentially large return, wasn't a good enough arrangement. At that point they stopped being real investors and became financial engineers looking to play the angles to remove risk from their position and shift their risk to everyone else. You don't need venture capital that bad, such that shooting yourself in the face is the only way to go. Just say no.