Rand Fishkin – Don’t Be Afraid to Stand up Against the Growth-at-All-Cost Venture Capital Model

<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/"><strong>Rand Fishkin</strong></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">is CEO & co-founder of</span> <a href="https://sparktoro.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">SparkToro</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, author of</span> <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Founder-Painfully-Honest-Startup-ebook/dp/B074DGYVD5/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, and previously co-founded and ran</span> <a href="https://moz.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Moz</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since publishing his book in 2018, he has earned 4.7 stars out of 5 from 170 reviews, a remarkable achievement!</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <p><strong>“Find something you’re passionate about, where you can add unique value, and where your audience wants to pay attention. Nail those three, and you’ll do great marketing.”</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rand Fishkin</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <h2><strong>Worst investment ever</strong></h2> <h3><strong>Time to grow business funds</strong></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rand’s worst investment ever happened when he was the CEO of</span> <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moz_(marketing_software)"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Moz</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. In 2011, the company turned down an acquisition offer from</span> <a href= "https://www.hubspot.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">HubSpot</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, a very well known marketing platform. At the time, Moz had been growing at 100% year-on-year for about six years in a row and producing about $11 million in revenue.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2012, Moz sought to increase funding and got $18 million, of which $15 million came from a new