With apologies to Andrew Marvell. If you haven’t read “To His Coy Mistress”, I fear this won’t make much sense.
Had we but funding enough and time,
This coyness, founder, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To build, and pass our slow run-rate’s day.
Thou by the Potomac’s side
Shouldst SBIRs find; I by the tide
Of El Segundo would complain. I may
Fund you ten years before the first customers pay,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the market supports dual-use.
Your annual revenue should grow
Vaster than Boeing’s and more slow;
An hundred years should go to build
Thy initial demo, until the warehouse filled;
Two hundred years for full refactoring,
But thirty thousand for manufacturing;
An age at least for every ambition,
And the last age to show your full vision.
For, founder, you deserve funding most,
Nor would I invest at a lower post.
But at my back I always hear
Palmer’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Investors dreaming only of exits and AI.
Thy product shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy bankrupt state, shall sound
My echoing retweets; then competition shall try
That long-preserved TAM and KPI,
And your quaint slide deck fall to pieces,
And into ashes all my investment theses;
Raytheon’s a fine and funded prime,
But none, I think, work there overtime.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing employees perspire
At every hour of night with resolute fire,
Now let us push to master while we may,
And now, like YC back in the day
All at once our runway devour
Than languish awaiting pricing power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our funding up into one ball,
And push our MVP with rough excess
Through the government procurement process:
Thus, though we cannot make the buyer
Stand still, yet we will make Anduril acqu-hire.