Found+READ: Comments by Vera Bass

Vera Bass — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 06:02:39 GMT

I am reading the description of your circumstances as being about more than appearances. Your consultant may be correct that his/her task in the scenario may be more difficult to accomplish given a presentation of your startup as you have described it. If you have entered into an agreement with this person to arrange funding for you, then I assume you trust his/her advice on what can and cannot be accomplished.

If I were investing in a start up, I would naturally be concerned with the question of who will be there 24/7 when a problem arises. This is not to say that anyone has to work 24/7, but the reality is that start ups run into problems, just as all businesses do, only more often. They are naturally more vulnerable and fragile than an established business and require dedicated nurturing. Investors look at your idea and plan, but they are also specifically interested in execution. Therefore their interest in knowing who is in charge and running the show is natural.

If your yet to be named CEO partner will be more of a marketing and management person, rather than an equal decision maker with you, then your investors will continue to look to you to inspire confidence in leadership and execution. If you have substantial priorities that override the needs of your start up, then this is a true barrier to investment. To put it in a more colloquial manner, the investor naturally wants to know the person(s) who aver(s), “The buck stops here.”, and take a measure of their commitment to success. They typically want to hear and believe that an entrepreneur is determined to do ‘whatever it takes’ to succeed.

Whether your definition of non-negotiable priorities is something to the effect of, “I won’t eliminate my family life and obligations.”, or more along the lines of only being willing to work a pre-defined maximum number of hours per week, makes a difference in what the issues, as opposed to the optics, are.

Vera Bass — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:16:30 GMT

Awesome idea. I’ve always had the hardest time finding great blogs by entrepreneurs, probably because most of them are too busy to breathe, let alone blog. :)

Vera Bass — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:29:38 GMT

Have you checked into how much money ESPN makes/loses?

Vera Bass — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:20:32 GMT

Great story, Ursula.

One of the measures of risk, which we rarely examine closely, is relevant to your story, and this the full extent and meaning of the risk being taken by a person (people) in a given situation.

A venture fund may be willing to take risks on unproved startups, but how much risk are they really taking, using OPM spread across multiple investments?

An angel or entrepreneur may be risking their own funds or savings, but they aren’t risking their lives or even their future ability to earn a living should they fail.

Your story tells of people willing to risk everything, including their lives, not even for financial reward, perhaps, but only to live in freedom or to have access to expanded opportunity.

This view of risk helps explain why the hardest person to compete against is one who has nothing to lose. When you have nothing to lose but your life, then you’re risking the most valuable thing of all.

Vera

Vera Bass — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 02:44:04 GMT

Great article, Wayne. I’d agree with Tony’s opinion that RFP aren’t usually a good idea, but there are situations where they work, and also as many versions of a traditional RFP as there are of deals made between people every day. Using those detailed components, even with a partner, can improve communication a lot.

My own experience to add to this is on ‘design’, which to me (through my commercial real estate development years and as an art collector) meant aesthetic form as much as function. Anyone who has a more formal knowledge of the history of design and art might have as hard a time as I have communicating what we want to web designers who don’t have that background. I’ve learned that I just have to put in a ton of work myself (in Photoshop, by hand, whatever) to get what I want. Apparently, being able to date a font on sight to the 50s or 30s or whatever makes me an oddball to a lot of designers.

It’s likely that most people reading this site would relate more to the web designers than to me …but you never know. :)

Vera Bass — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 00:50:59 GMT

No question, in my view. Listening is at the heart of most successes, and the best entrepreneurs I’ve worked with are/were the best listeners. The most successful of them, moreover, usually listened to *anyone* that had something of value to add. That could be a receptionist in an office they were visiting, a casual window shopper on their property (real or virtual), an employee’s relative…

Before you’re successful, most people will tell you how great your ideas sound, either because they like you and your enthusiasm or because they can’t picture what you’re seeing/describing.

After you’ve become successful, it can be just as hard to find people who’ll give you an honest opinion and constructive criticism, even if for different reasons.

When I’m working on a new project I don’t want to hear how great it is. What I value most is someone who is really paying attention and who will take the ideas/plans apart and put them back together again with me. The most successful things I’ve done have involved the greatest amount of that process.