What does "do more with less" mean in this context?

Question

What does "do more with less" mean in this context?

Raising money before Aha is difficult and money is expensive. Before Aha, VCs usually demand control and recruit a professional CEO. This means that entrepreneurs, who want to control their dream and the wealth it creates, need to know how to get to Aha with control and how to grow after Aha with control. Most of the billion-dollar entrepreneurs controlled their venture. To control, you need to do more with less – especially before Aha. Mark Zuckerberg got VC after Aha and controlled his venture and the wealth created.

source: Forbes, Aug 4, 2016

Answer 1

"Do more with less" usually means to be (more) productive or creative with less money or resources. It seems here that the author is saying that in order to maintain control of your venture, you need to be willing to take more responsibilities and do more for your venture with less money, as opposed to losing control after securing more resources from VCs.

Answer 2

In simple terms, 'doing more with less' means:

To utilize something or a situation to the maximum possible level.

For example, you have an apple. Instead of eating it, you cut a piece and eat it, cut out another piece and cook something with it, take another piece and share it with your hungry friend. You even take out the seeds and bury it, hoping it will grow into an apple tree someday and give you more and more apples. You could've eaten the apple and wish you had more, but instead, you utilized it to its maximum. You even planned for the future and planted the seeds.

Now try and interpret the same meaning for your context.