In downturn, don't build, hoping they'll come

Glam Media CEO and former VC, Samir Arora, on fundraising during a downturn

Nearly one out of five mortgage borrowers in the U.S. owe more to lenders than their homes are worth, according to a recent report. That's probably the case with venture capitalists' portfolios. A good portion are worth a lot less than their original value.

Given today's tough economic environment, I asked Glam Media CEO Samir Arora, who's an entrepreneur four times over and has worked on the other side of the table as a venture capitalist, to share his thoughts on how to operate and how to go about fundraising.

Glam Media, which recently had layoffs, has raised significant amounts of money. All told, Samir's raised $110 million in funding for Glam Media, a vertical advertising network focused on women, and more recently targeting men, with its new Brash Network.

"Don’t fool yourself to thinking 'We’ll build it and they will come,'" said Samir. "Given what's going on in the market today, absolutely minimize all expenses."

Clearly, this is good advice for anyone seeking to spend resources on new or untested projects. 

As for fundraising, Samir thinks we're heading for more sobering times.

"Having seen several cycles in fundraising," he said. "We’re entering a slowdown, [we're] not even in the middle." 

To that end, venture capitalists won't be funding new ideas for a long time, he predicted. VCs have no choice but to put their money into existing companies to make sure their current investments remain solvent. So, understand that you may have a great idea and product, but it's the tough economic times that will keep it from ever being realized.

For Samir, of course, he's betting that his existing investors will heed his words and keep funding his company until there is an exit.

But just in case they don't, he's following his own advice by having reduced costs and pursuing breakeven this quarter.