Why I Chose $2 Subscriptions Over $5M in VC Money

Why I Chose $2 Subscriptions Over $5M in VC Money I turned down venture capital. Not because I'm principled (though I'd like to think I am), but because the math actually worked differently when I looked at who I wanted to serve. Let me walk you through what that decision actually means, because it's messier and more liberating than you'd think. The Numbers That Made Me Reconsider Everything When you're chasing VC funding, the pitch deck demands hockey stick growth. You need to hit 1 million users by year three. That means spending aggressively on customer acquisition—maybe $20-30 per user. It means building features for enterprise customers willing to pay $500/month. It means geographic focus on wealthy markets first. A developer in Lagos, Nigeria? A freelancer in Bangalore making $15,000 annually? They weren't in the target market. The math didn't work. But what if the math did work differently? What if instead of 1 million users at $50/month, you had 100,000 users at $2/month? That'