&gt;<i>The Fatal Pinch does not apply to me</i><p>Except, sometimes it doesn&#x27;t? If you look at the notes[0] at the bottom of The Fatal Pinch:<p>&gt;<i>There are a handful of companies that can&#x27;t reasonably expect to make money for the first year or two, because what they&#x27;re building takes so long. For these companies substitute &quot;progress&quot; for &quot;revenue growth.&quot; You&#x27;re not one of these companies unless your initial investors agreed in advance that you were. And frankly even these companies wish they weren&#x27;t, because the illiquidity of &quot;progress&quot; puts them at the mercy of investors.</i><p>What do you do if you&#x27;re one of those companies? There&#x27;s plenty of business models that could be attractive acquisition targets (read: billions), but otherwise can&#x27;t monetize to save their souls.<p>Two pieces of advice often encountered (paraphrasing):<p><i>&quot;Treat each funding round as if it&#x27;s your last.&quot;</i><p><i>&quot;VC money is like rocket fuel. It&#x27;s intended to be burned at a high rate.&quot;</i><p>I imagine reconciling both is difficult at best.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;paulgraham.com&#x2F;pinch.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;paulgraham.com&#x2F;pinch.html</a>