Growth vs. profit: What should rising startups focus on first?

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George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures, a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago.

This really is not a simple question to answer. There are so many nuances that go into assessing the right answer:

What is going on with the economy?How liquid is the fundraising climate?Are you B2B or B2C?Are you the first mover?How defensible is your business, with patents, product complexity or otherwise?What are your competitors doing?How big is the market opportunity?How quickly is it emerging?Are you trying to dominate the world, or build a nice lifestyle business?Are you venture-backed, or privately owned?

So, in light of all these moving pieces, I will do my best to layout some high level guidance.

Based on the above questions:

(i) the softer the economy, the more you should protect your cash reserves to weather the storm;

(ii) the better the financing climate, the more comfortable you should feel in accelerating growth with access to investors;

(iii) I think B2C businesses need to think

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