Traditional education is really tough for venture. Teachers are probably the most change averse folks in the world. I applaud your desire make things better. VC hasn't historically mixed well here.
No, we never felt pressure to take funding. We thought of funding is a tool to speed things ups. We built our product, customer base first. The first versions were rough and needed our involvement to a much higher degree then it does today.
We decided "we can grow faster then our revenue if we have cash". We raised our seed from investors we knew well that would have been happy with dividend returns.
After another year, of great traction we decided to go for an 'A' to prove out the sales model. We still had 3/4ths of the seed round in the bank at this point so we only needed the money for growth, not operations.
Started with a plan to prove our business first as a lifestyle business. Got customers, got usage, got revenue. We raised our first round when cash flow positive (which was much easier to raise, because we had a real business). Then a year later even a bigger round. Make it a real business first. Don't start life as a capital crack baby.
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