What VC optimises for
Venture capital is not a business model. It is a financial instrument with specific return requirements. This financial structure has a direct effect on product decisions. Features that drive engagement are valued over features that drive satisfaction.
The user backlash
Users have started noticing. The phenomenon of 'enshittification' — the tendency of platforms to progressively degrade user experience as they extract more value — has gone from a niche tech-industry observation to something people are experiencing widely.
“When a user's needs and an investor's return requirements diverge — and in a VC-funded company, they eventually always do — the investor wins. This is not a bug. It is how the incentive structure works.”
The indie advantage
An independent software company has a structurally different relationship with its users. When the only way to sustain the business is to make users happy enough to keep paying, user happiness and business success are the same thing.
How we think about it
Muqira is built on a simple premise: build products we would want to use ourselves, own them for the long term, and let compounding do its work. We are not optimising for an exit.
What we think comes next
The opportunity for independent operators is to serve the users that large companies have stopped serving well — the solo practitioners, the small teams, the people who want a tool that does one thing excellently.
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