How to Grow through the Funding Winter?

The funding winter is a challenging time for start-ups, but it doesn't mean you have to stop growing. Read tips on how to weather the storm and emerge stronger on the other side.

Today’s Issue at a Glance

In this guest post,

Shreya Prakash

Co-founder & CEO of FlexiBees, shares how she steered her start-up through the funding winter to achieve positive unit economics and continued to grow.

Winter has come. It is the dreaded funding winter.

An outcome of a combination of macroeconomic factors, such as inflationary pressures, the Russian-Ukraine War and post pandemic demand shock, the funding winter has led to reduced capital inflows for start-ups and scale-ups. 

Although if one is of the glass half-full variety, they might take heart from the notion that it has changed the fundamentals of start-up investing for the better. With cash-burning businesses coming under the scanner, it has brought renewed investor focus onto unit economics and bottom-lines.

However, achieving positive unit economics as a start-up might sound like a no-brainer, but it is not. These are companies that are trying to disrupt existing systems or change consumer mindsets, big hairy goals that need investment in the form of technology & people. Economies of scale don’t kick in until one has some scale, and in order to scale, you need capital.  

The is classic Catch 22.