C.R.A.P.
#CapitalAtRisk
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Think
When I was away on holiday in August (Croatia, lovely) I read The Sovereign Individual. Not everyone is a fan of this book, but I am, and on page 55 there’s the following:
"Rest assured that dramatic changes will not be welcomed or predicted by conventional thinkers. If you want to understand and see change you'll have to think for yourself."
Then a few weeks ago I was at a social event for VCs and one was very worried… The worry was that they were interested in investing in a startup they were excited about but no other VC that usually co-invested alongside them was interested. In fact they had many reasons why the investment was wrong.
What do you think that VC should do? Invest? Pass?
I was really excited for this VC without even knowing what the startup was — I wouldn’t want all of my deals to be rejected by others but if there’s one I’m excited about and no one else is then that could be a genuine outlier.
If you’re considering investing in startups then, like me, you should be looking for outliers — the obscure that become obvious, the niche that becomes ubiquitous and the eccentric who becomes a visionary.
But…
…by investing in startups many people will disagree with you — you’ll probably be made to feel stupid and you certainly can’t prove you know what you’re doing in the short-term. Don’t worry about it, you’ll never convince the doubters so if you’re happy with your decision just smile, say ‘OK’, and move on knowing that you might just have a genuine outlier in your portfolio.
I always remember Richard St. John’s TED talk, here — it was one of the first TED Talks I ever watched and Richard says that to be successful you have to put up with C.R.A.P. which of course stands for…
These feelings are all the more personal if you’re investing your own money as an angel investor because there’s nowhere to hide — you make all the decisions and have to log into your bank and hit ‘send’ on the transfer.
So keep going — think for yourself — it’s the only way.
Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
#CapitalAtRisk