The Dilemma of an Entrepreneur: Whether to focus on developing business or chase the investors?

On a recent interaction, I came up across this issue and had a brief discussion  and brainstorming over the same. In fact, this has been a serious concern for most of the upcoming entrepreneurs that I have interacted over the past few months.

Every entrepreneurs whether big or small, or at an early stage or at a growth/expansion phase has to deal with this dilemma. Finance is the life-blood of the business and the success of any venture depends on availability of the right amount of fund at the right time at right place from a right investor. There seems to be a lot of permutation and combination for factoring all these elements and determining the success of a venture.

Also we cannot ignore the fact that we are in a time where everything is fast paced and is moving really quick and you just can't wait for so many "rights" to happen. To put it bluntly either "be quick or be sorry". You can have a robust plan, solid team and fool proof implementation strategy at place but if you don't find the right amount of money, then all your efforts may go in vain. Someone with a less better or even a bad plan may make it big just because s/he landed hefty funding from a renowned Venture Capital.

I am not trying to generalize the need for funding over here. I am just giving a perspective to the dilemma. As every business is unique, their requirements are also unique. There have been instances where well funded businesses have doomed.

What I am trying to explain is, it is for the entrepreneurs to take the call on whether to bootstrap and develop the business and fund the growth of the business through internally generated funds or to go to the investor at an early stage and then develop the business. Funding in India seems to be over-rated and over-hyped and there is a general perception that getting funded from a VC is a sure shot to success. However, as I already explained, every business has its own requirement and pace for growth and it is for the entrepreneur to take the call and not just run behind the general trend. 

After all, the success of the business and the entrepreneur is determined by a lot of factors and not just by the amount of funding one is able to managed and the kind of valuation one is able to attract. Burning the investors money to extend freebies/freemiums on a rationale to build a consumer base doesn't seem to be a sustainable business model, especially in a price sensitive market like India. On a long term, every business has to get back to the basics and the success is to be determined on the basis of sustainable value addition to all the stakeholders and not just by maximization of shareholders' wealth. Sustainable value addition to all the stakeholders is only possible through continued focus on strengthening and developing the core business.