🟢 Why money raised and startup valuation is the worst possible KPI

An ongoing discussion I'm frequently involved in is how chasing investment and capital raised as the key indicator for any startup ecosystem is not a KPI in any shape or form. But it's an indicator that the media loves, public authorities 'understand,' and worse, it is the only one startups seem to be consistently chasing when trying to launch.

A partial or plain bad KPI

The amount of money raised by startups is, at best, an early metric that doesn't predict much of the future of the venture (the odds of crashing are about the same when a startup A raises 10x what a startup B did; they're just in position for bigger losses). It's also a metric that is not broadly well understood. Very often, when a €2 million series A is broadcasted, only €350-600K are raised, and the rest of the money is only provisioned on paper after reaching strict milestones. This last piece of information is conveniently omitted from any press release.

But plain lying seems OK, too. No one really verifies what's behind a press release. I'd personally wager that at least 50% of the data provided by Pitchbook, Crunchbase, or Dealroom is false or vastly exaggerated (these sites are central reference points for anyone analyzing startup valuations and money raised).