Entrepreneurship is hard. Most everything about building a new company is a heavy lift.
Are there shout-from-the-mountain-tops moments? Most certainly. When the first prototype works as designed. When the first customer contract is signed. When a talent critical hire says yes and joins the team. And when the company receives the funding it needs to move the business through the next set of milestones.
Market validation. Talented teams. Innovative products. All critical success factors — but not make-or-break in the same way capital is to a startup company. Capital (or the lack of it) can force a go/no-go decision like no other factor in a young firm’s critical path.
In the startup world, the sources of those funds are angel investors and venture capitalists. Every entrepreneur has to learn who and where these people are and how and when they choose to invest. Likely, there isn’t a true entrepreneur in existence that doesn’t realize access to capital is the critical path.