The Funds startup grows with someone else’s money. That’s a dangerous game.
The Grants startup eats up the taxpayers’ money. That’s a hurtful game.

The Customers startup kind focuses on solving problems in a way people are willing to pay for.

It’s long, it’s hard, it needs you to rework many assumptions, and it often doesn’t grow as fast, nor look as sexy.

But it’s the only kind of startup [1] I respect.

You can be solving problems people could pay for, but not in the way you put forward. Change, or die. But you do have my sympathy.

Or perhaps you found a way to extract money from people while not really solving problems. I don’t particularly like you but you’re playing a wrong game right, so, well, why not?

[1] Or is it?
This is so different than what we think about as “startups”, that we call them “bootstrapped businesses”, or simply just “businesses” or “companies”.