I’ve been advised to go after my next round of funding, based on business goals/objectives (which are always lofty :)).

There are lots of thoughts about getting investment money, and my biggest concerns are with the investors themselves.  This post from Tim Ferris was AWESOME… but his objective as an angel investor is different than many angels’ objectives.

One thing I’ve worried about is the ability of an investor (or group of investors) to have control over my strategic direction to the point where we are driven to do something that I don’t think we should do… or to shut down completely.

On TechCrunch there is a post about Wesabe, a company like Mint, that is shutting down.  Their reasons are legit… as a company that provides FINANCIAL services (interface with your bank account, etc.), they HAVE TO have certain security in place, and they say they aren’t comfortable with the level of service they can provide right now… I totally get that.

But my concerns was this:

In Feburary 2007 [Wesabe] raised $700,000 from O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and later that year raised $4 million in a round led by Union Square Ventures.

How is it that a company gets 4.7M in funding and three years later it dives into the deadpool?

If I got 4.7M, what would my path to the deadpool look like? Alternatively, what would my path to fantastic success look like?

Makes me sad to think that wesabe is pulling the plug, but it really makes me think about going and getting money – money alone will not solve the issue (how to become successful/sustainable, etc.).

Or could it?