From a founder perspective, I think with your first startup, you want to prove that you can build something and get customers to pay for it.
And maybe, if things go right, you walk away with a small exit that sets you up to swing bigger the next time.
Once you have that track record, raising money becomes a lot easier — you don’t have to chase investors. They’ll be the ones knocking down your door, trying to invest.
Building a startup is really hard and so in absence of a track record, investors look at your pedigree (Ivy League material, FAANG, etc.) to see what you’ve done over time. It’s not a perfect science, but it’s a good proxy to judge whether you’re likely to survive the brutal slog of building a company from scratch.
With a track record of execution — even on a small scale — that signal becomes much stronger. Investors don’t have to guess if you can ship a product, find paying customers, and navigate early-stage chaos; they can see it in your history.
In short: your first startup is less about the size of the exit and more about proving you can execute. Everything else — funding, bigger opportunities, credibility — tends to follow naturally once you’ve demonstrated that ability.