Remembering the time in 2005 that @yahoo exec told me that @reddit was a "rounding error" compared to them and asked the room why this meeting was even happening. 😆
Fight on, founders. No one will believe in you until you believe in yourself.
Most founders never ask themselves the question “what kind of company do I want to work at?” because they are just worried about surviving to the next milestone.
Instead, the culture forms accidentally from the positive and negative behaviors on the scramble to success.
Hiring is the hardest thing about startups.
Everyone will tell you it's the hardest thing you'll ever do, and you'll believe them.
And you will *still* underestimate just how hard and time-consuming it really is.
Been investing for 5.5 years. I have returned almost no capital, but have lead 1 round from seed investor->unicorn, 1 more coming shortly, and another hopefully a bit later in year.
So I have at least learned some things.
Here are my learnings for New GPs/Managers, fwiw:
When getting ready to pitch VCs, founders often jump right into assembling a slide deck.
I think this is a mistake.
I’d suggest that you start by writing twenty headlines that sum up your startup, and only then build the slides.
Here’s why:
1/11
The independent-mindedness of startup founders even puts them at odds with their own employees, many of whom don't mind being told what to do (and thus also don't mind the government telling everyone what to do).