For anyone who ordered yesterday, has your shipping status updated?

I am not sure. I am comfortable with the way I do things. I understand how to run businesses the traditional way. The whole VC thing seems like bullshit to me. It just feels like a hype scam that has gotten out of control the past couple decades. Companies that have never made any profits, and may never make profits, are trading at insane levels. Companies that have never even made any REVENUE, much less profits, are valued at $100M. It just seems crazy to me. It seems like we have lost sight of how actual stable businesses should operate, and shifted the focus onto making it all just another casino game. Then you get things like Theranos, who everyone should have known could not be doing what they claimed. There are a ton of hype-centric companies out there in the AI segment that are basically scams, or at the very least are stretching the truth on their capabilities, but they trade at insane levels. It just seems like the primary focus these days is to create a startup with a ton of hype, then get a large company like Google to buy you up. The end goal is the sale of the company, not whatever the product or service of the company provides. I guess I am just a bit jaded by the modern corporate/startup/VC structure of things, and wish we could go back to a time where the people starting companies were more interested in building something that served a purpose, rather than build something that they could sell for lots of money.

There's also something to be said about being forced to work with what you have, and be strategic about what you spend money on. I was in consulting before I started this company, and I flew all over the world working with the some of the biggest companies on the planet. The amount of waste and inefficiency was mind boggling! They have so much money that they don't need to be strategic about the things they do. People that have no business running a lemonade stand are managing hundred million dollar deals, and they are literal idiots. There is a lot to be said for having to build things organically in a self-sustaining manner. When you get a ton of money from VC backers, you don't have to be strategic in that manner. Losing money is not a big deal, and you can kick the can down the road. Sometimes that works out, but many times it does not. Even when it works out you are left with a less-than-ideal structure because it grew inorganically. It's hard to reverse and fix structural business issues when you are that far along, so often times those inefficiencies are just part of the company forever. Being forced to take things slowly and grow organically has its advantages. Plus, it forces you to really need to understand where the market wants to go, rather than you trying to force the market where you think it should go. I have learned that lesson a lot over the years. Sometimes no matter what you do, and no matter how much money you throw at something, the market will not respond how you think it should. VC-backed companies can gloss over that, and just use hype to convince investors it will just take more time. Traditionally funded companies have to actually pivot and shift to stay alive. I think that makes a capitalist society stronger. It's not propping up failing business models with fake casino money.

Of course if I had investors, I feel I would not fall prey to these issues. In theory, more money could only help me to achieve my mission faster. However, having not ever run a VC-backed company, it's hard for me to say for sure. Perhaps I am successful because I am forced to be strategic from day one. Maybe having more money from day one would have made me go down paths that ultimately would have led to failure. I also like simplicity when it is possible. I have enough complexity with everything else going on. Adding more complexity into the funding structure of the company might just increase my stress. It could also just be that I am uncomfortable with it because I am unfamiliar with it, and I am letting my jaded skepticism of the state of the economy as a whole cloud my judgement on things.