Next entry: The SuperSizing of VC Funds

Previous entry: Questions Every Employee Should Ask Before Joining a VC-Backed Company

Entrepreneurs are the Real Heroes

I’ve been going back through my favorite postings by VC bloggers and ran back across a classic by Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures.  Fred posts a weekly “VC Cliche of the Week” discussion which is usually spot-on.  This one from last fall concerns the old maxim that “success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan.”

One of the worst offenses in my opinion during the bubble days was the sense that, somehow, VCs were more important to the startup ecosystem than entrepreneurs.  VCs were rock stars who took enormous risk and were therefore deserving of magazine covers, etc.

Everyone at Flywheel has been an entrepreneur at some point prior to joining the firm, and we all think this kind of thinking is rubbish.  When was the last time a VC put a portfolio company’s payroll on his or her credit cards, or signed a second mortgage on the family home?

Simply put, entrepreneurs are the ones who take the risks, and they are the ones who ultimately deserve the rewards.  VCs are more like service providers.  The best VCs, of course, are like trusted service providers - the family doctor, high school principal, asset manager, or babysitter who provides more than a simple service-for-hire and who gradually becomes an important part of the family.  Our aspiration with each of our Flywheel portfolio entrepreneurs is to earn our way into that trusted inner circle.  We don’t believe you get there just because you write a check and take a board seat.

Posted 03-18-2006, 03:57 pm, by Trevor Loy    Comments 0