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Importance of Respect
Read time 1.8 minutes.
I want to start today with a personal anecdote.
When I was a first-time founder, I was a little shit. I was arrogant, overconfident and dismissive. In retrospect, if there were 3 things that I could change about my time as CEO of my first venture-backed company, an attitude adjustment would be one of them.
I start with this because I don’t want this newsletter to feel patronizing. I want to communicate as best I can that this advice comes from someone who really messed up. Luckily, I had the chance to learn and improve, but I definitely was never perfect. Had I been, my company might have been more successful.
So let’s start by looking at my mistakes before jumping into the present day and why I am addressing this topic.
My Mistakes
As many of you know, I raised VC less than 1 month after finishing my Master’s thesis. I had studied VCs, I knew how to pitch, and with no real business, I was still able to get the money needed to get the company off the ground.
This success made me arrogant. A couple of months after raising, we were invited to an accelerator that had previously told me we’d never raise because our idea was too cost-intensive. The first thing I did when the head of the accelerator gave me advice on day one threw it in his face that he was wrong about us before and likely was again. The accelerator required one person from our team to be there every day to get the money; I sent our intern.
Today, I can confidently say that the advice the accelerator gave us that I ignored would have helped us and that burning that bridge with someone who wanted to help us negatively impacted our ability to raise from that accelerator’s network.
There isn’t a single story I can tell you about a time when the arrogance I had as a founder ever benefited me, I had to pick between 6 to tell in this newsletter about when it hurt us.
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Why address this?
In the last week, I’ve had direct or indirect experiences with a few founders who were arrogant in a manner that hurt them.
We had a founder email my team to ask about being featured in Dealflow Express. The original message included a deck which was shared with a small group of investors who sometimes back companies in the newsletter. They were interested. We sent the founder the application and got a reply: they wouldn’t apply unless they were guaranteed a spot, and they didn’t want to waste time (for reference, the application is under 1 minute long). We told them we don’t make guarantees that they need to be a top 3 company in the week they apply. They decided not to apply. Taking 1 minute to apply would have gotten them a meeting with the partner syndicate and likely a 50/50 chance at raising.
I write many newsletters on controversial topics. Sunday’s on founder pay is a great example. When I write these newsletters, I get loads of replies. On Sunday, about 90% of replies agreed with my perspective; the rest challenged it. Some people who challenged the perspective shared their own stories; we had a great conversation, and at the end, both walked away feeling better educated and informed. A couple, however, were just non-constructive personal attacks. What some subscribers might not know is that I’ve worked for/with major investors and am connected with many others. Given that I reach so many people, many connections will ask me if I know a founder before they invest. Sometimes, something as little as sending a well-written reply to an email gets you a positive referral and in others, a negative, arrogant email gets you a negative referral. The startup community is small, and you never know who is connected to who, and being arrogant/rude is an easy way to destroy your network.
Takeaway
I know the thrills and confidence that come with being successful in the early stages of a company. What you don’t see until you are at the other end is that each success places a bigger mountain before you. Don’t make the mistakes I did, and allow your arrogance and ego to negatively impact your chances of succeeding.
Work hard and stay humble.
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Onwards and Upwards,
P.S. Are you ready to take the next step in raising venture capital for your company? If so, you can book a 1:1 strategy call with me to help get you going in the right direction!
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