Thoughts after a small capital raise

So the day job did a small capital raise. Not a huge amount, but helpful for some day to day stuff. We did this in part because a larger effort we were working on stalled for reasons I won’t go into here. Looking at where we are and where we need to be, I am amazed at the profound need for performance throughout the hyperconverged space, and blown away that we appear to be the only one focused upon it. One would think investors would be lining up to build something very performance and very dense. But no. They aren’t. Say the word “hardware” and most run away screaming. Because, cloud. Or “where the hell is Michigan”. Or “why don’t you do it all in software”. Or … (insert any number of reasons that have little to do with reality). I have to admit, that aspect of things is quite frustrating. Good companies, good products, ones that are viable, and have a realistic future, are found whereever the founders are. But that’s not the only reason I’m frustrated with the process. Think Secret. No, not them in particular, but the whole concept of “throw money at a few people and maybe they’ll come up with a business plan.” What I find frustrating is that viable companies with good products, and significant potential (hey the hyperconverged market, what we’ve been calling tightly coupled for the last decade, is growing explosively) aren’t being given the time of day in many cases, while complete and utter wastes of capital are being showered with, curiously, capital. You’ll hear about some more of our awesome products soon, and we are going to continue to build the best damned tightly coupled aka hyperconverged products we can. And continuing to sell them as best we can. We did find a few investors who grok why this is important, and that is good. Its a shame we can’t find more folks who are willing and able to write investment checks (without playing some of the games we’ve seen played), whom understand the deep need for powerful and dense systems.