I apologize from the start. This article will be replete with metaphors. They help me drive home my point. A few puns will also be included. 

As entrepreneurs, most of you are not piloting rocket ships that will launch into orbit as a $100MM brand in the next five years. Instead, you’re driving a Toyota on a long, solo cross-country road trip. 

You’re cruising down that highway in your trusty Toyota when the empty light illuminates. Do you start looking for rocket fuel? No, you look for cheap unleaded and a bathroom.

Yet, as a founder building a brand towards its first $10MM in revenue, you search for rocket fuel when your business runs low on cash. That’s fine if you’re an astronaut with a spaceship, but put it in your Toyota, and it will only sputter and die. 

Most venture funds stretch Parado’s Law to the extreme, with less than 10% of the portfolio returning 90% or more of its upside. That means if you get funding from a VC, you’re putting your Toyota on the launchpad and sending it hurling into the sky regardless of whether it can fly. This needs to stop. It doesn’t work for either the VC or the entrepreneur. 

Let’s start with some honest reflection. Rocket ships aren’t that hard to spot. They stand out in a parking lot. When you look at your brand, does it appear to be a hypersonic vehicle capable of interstellar travel, or does it look like a Toyota? I’ll cut you some slack; how about a Porsche? If it is not the former, why would you use something that will burn super hot and fast to fuel its journey? It doesn’t make sense. Maybe someday you’ll build a rocket, but until then, stay off the launch pad. 

The Nav system of this industry keeps directing you to Cape Canaveral, and we need to fix that as well. Most investors in this industry get excited about the moonshot. Nothing is wrong with that, as someone needs to fund the dreamers.  But we also require those willing to staff the stations along the highways to provide cheap, unleaded, clean bathrooms. 

Entrepreneurs and investors will make money along this highway. Small, earmarked investments with the correct terms and structure will help a brand propel itself down the road and make all the difference in reaching its destination. Upon arrival, that founder finds himself or herself on the opposite coast, toes in the sands of choice—a place where they can choose to build a rocket, sell the Toyota to a collector, or just keep on driving in a new direction. 

 I love a good moonshot, but I’ll bet on the Toyota; thank you.