In Good Style

My favorite movie of all time is The Eiger Sanction, a classic Clint Eastwood thriller of the '70s, shot in Moab and in the Alps by real climbers. At the end of the film, rappelling off the North Face with the body of their dead partner, Clint looks at the Austrian guy and says: "Don't worry, we'll make it."

"I don't think so," says the Austrian with a smile, "but we will continue in good style."

Style means something specific to mountain guides and venture capitalists. And to the good ones, it matters a lot.

Roy McClenahan was among the best rock guides of my generation and taught me about guiding style. Roy was a master of his terrain in Tuolumne Meadows, high above Yosemite Valley, and guided clients there in good style for a decade. He developed a reputation for excellence on the rock and off that made him a favorite of the best clients, and a model for the aspirant rock guides of the Yosemite Mountaineering School.

Good style to a mountain guide means picking the right route for the client, moving at a comfortable pace together, reaching the summit ahead of the crowd, and returning to a sunny spot on the deck of the hut for a cold beer and a plate of rosti.

Guiding in good style also means you look like a mountain guide: top quality outerwear and the proper gear packed in good order so that there's everything you'll need for the ascent. There's a reason that IFGMA guides all look the same the world over; they know what they're doing and they do it in style.

Good style in venture capital investing means a friendly but complete negotiation; a detailed, signed term sheet; an appropriately defined due diligence period; a clean set of Series A Preferred documents; and a final closing that precisely matches the original terms...followed by a cold beer and a plate of rosti.

Investing in good style depends more heavily on the skill of the VC than on the skill of the entrepreneur. It's our job to know what are the likely deal points that could cause conflict and to get those out on the table early. It's our job to make sure that the founding team all share the same vision and values, and to convince them that their CEO has picked the right investors to drive success, not just the firm that agreed to pay the most. It's our job to craft a plan expectation that tempers enthusiasm and enables sandbag excellence.

In venture capital and in mountain guiding, it is insufficient to achieve the summit through luck and timing. Like Cowboy Roy, we must strive to do so in good style.