37signals: "Trust customers over VCs... Real customers who use their own money to pay for your products seem like a much better, much more real confirmation that you’re doing something right than getting pegged by a VC using other people’s money to fish for 1-in-10 chances of a monster trout... stop thinking so much about users and start focusing on customers"

I get a lot more people impressed by Meetup's VCs than Meetup's tens-of-thousands of paying customers (Meetup Organizers), and there's something wrong with that. We're grateful for Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Omidyar Network, Union Square Ventures -- our VCs -- but we're more grateful to Meetup Organizers for choosing to pay to use our service.

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