Love seeing entrepreneurial funding growth in the Bitcoin space. The global adoption of Bitcoin depends on how many people use it and depend on it, how sticky it is.

This took me a few years to figure out but when it comes to VCs some prefer rapid growth, some just want to pump and dump and others prefer slow growth. These separations are not set in stone, but it might help map things out.

Rapidly growing startups often experience significant expansion and tend to digress from their initial plans and goals of their startups. They need to be adaptable and take on various innovations. Investors here tend to look for the 7x to 10x returns min within 5-10 years. Also many aspects, people, and “strong investor opinions'' become crucial at the growth stage. You have to either know enough or be an incredibly fast learner to navigate through a million things (and hopefully have wonderful investors and mentors)

Rapid scaling is not the same as pump and dump but often many investors will go down the pump and dump route, that's another thing to differentiate and avoid. Herd mentality applies to all (even us!)

The other type of business is slow and steady - this might turn into an SME or a large business - you will maintain what you intend to build, what you are passionate about, and grow with slow and steady speed. Various funding sources - grants, loans, competition prize money etc. Equity investments are also applicable here but investors here might be more keen on yearly returns and in for the long haul.

I think both rapid scale and slow and steady has its pros and cons. Ultimately it's what you want, your goals and finding people that align with it.

Early stage investors will look at business potential, market potential, founder potential etc. Later stage investors will look into financial revenue, your killer EBITDA and profits. I think its best to avoid investors who get this confused. I think I went through 10 investors before I understood this confusion. This happens when there are not enough early stage investors and mostly are from traditional financial lines with no startup experience.