The Modern Oracle

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This week I talk about how my love for VC started in an essay making a parallel that—I promise you—will be worth your time. The English version of this essay can be found here. Don't forget to subscribe!?

- José Luis S.

The Modern Oracle

I have always been fascinated by the Greeks and, I suppose, in part, that is where my affection for VC comes from. I'll talk about the latter shortly. In the meantime, I’ll focus on the former. That affection I had for Athens, I now see, was somewhat predictable; along with dinosaurs and space, these are the most common among childhood fixations. I never developed an affinity for the latter two, but I was very much a Grecophile in my early years. Well, of history in general, be it Mexico, Europe or what little of Asia I could find. But, of them all, I always had a particular affection for the Greeks; like the one I have today for these ConteNIDO essays. As a child, I liked to read the few magazines I could find on the subject—many of them fantastic and unfounded; bought from the aisles next to supermarket cashiers. I even devoured an illustrated encyclopedia on Hellenic myths?that I was given as a birthday present until I broke its cover into many pieces, and it was no longer recognizable as a book. To this day, I still remember some of its pictures together with the games it inspired in school where I pretended to be Hercules and my friends were Achilles or Prometheus. Look where this has all gotten me! My memories lead me far from our subject…

Although, being honest, I don't have much to add. Almost everything I knew then about the Greeks I have forgotten—surely because there is other knowledge that has replaced it. I still have many glimpses of the subject, of course. Every so often, emerging from the memory of times past, I get some Hellenic memories—Zeus abducting Europa; Perseus cutting off Medusa’s head—; almost always, when I close my eyes, they are accompanied by the drawings of that encyclopedia that I lost long ago. They are always useful, these childhood memories, which help me understand my present condition. They are, at least, an initial approach. I guess it's wired deep into our minds. We go back to the comfort of our first readings to explain new forms od complexity. The past helps the present; yesterday aids today. Both the distant, of the Greeks, and my childhood when I read them. And I used them, at one time, to understand the world of VC.

It is not voluntary; if it were, it would lose its charm. It's just my memories that wanted to help me at the time—as so many writers, to exhaustion, used the Greeks to write something modern. Mine, I fear, was not so intellectual—it would become so, as this essay soon will. In one of my first talks with Maria and Caro (Nido’s founders and dear friends) the connection came immediately. One of those childhood sparks that help us understand our modern entanglements. VC was, in its own way, like the oracle of the Greeks.

It sounds strange, I know. But the parallel seemed so clear to me at the time that, since then, I have been pitching Nido on the idea of this essay—and, finally, it has succeeded. You see, this is what that encyclopedia of yesteryear told me about the financial world. VC, as a discipline, clings to the future; the two are deeply connected. Just as oracle priestesses guided kings and heroes of old. For both, the future is part of their definition. Taking capital now, and using concrete information processes, VCs take what little data the present offers to try to understand future outcomes. The goal is to make a concrete decision that earns astronomical returns. For their part, oracle priestesses talked to their gods to discern, in the chaos of the present, the keys of the future.

They are not so different from each other. Both revolve around our obsession with the uncertainty of the future. That, I want to believe, is what my memories of old wanted to tell me. The VC, with modern tools, does the same thing as the oracle at Delphi. Both try to predict tomorrow in order to take advantage. Oracles, more than anything else, advised on wars and adventures. VCs, from the present, aid in finding large revenues to their LPs and shareholders. Both wanting the best results in a chaotic universe.

Even upon reflection, I believe that this early memory has something more to teach. Oracles were not just predictors; they were advisors. To a worried Athenian king, they gave advice on how to stay in power. To an emboldened warrior, they spoke of the risks they would face. I don't see that much difference with the VC's mentoring role with their entrepreneurs. At least, that’s what I saw in the image that Caro and Maria presented to me, from the beginning, as crucial to Nido's values. In a world where there are so many capital alternatives, the ideal VC will also be supportive. He or she will give advice, caution. They don't just see the future; they do their best to warn others. Both are guides in the face of tomorrow's uncertainty.

And, in closing, I suppose the greatest value of this metaphor is in the myths interwoven with reality. This, I confess, is something more intellectual than, in any way, came with my initial recollection. But that does not detract from its value. The Greeks, as we remember them today, combined a part of history with a part of fiction. That is the charm that, as children, we tend to see in them. We know, with some certainty, that there was a war in Troy where hundreds fought and hundreds died. We do not know if Achilles, son of a god, led the battle or if Odysseus, supported by Athena, was there too. Reality is merged with myth; it adds excitement. And therein lies the charm. To face enormous adversities, sometimes we need those pleasures of fiction. The oracle, at the end of the day, spoke in this language of mythologies. To inspire kings, it told tales of gods and revenge; lovers and desires. In an uncertain world, where nothing can be predicted, immense faith is needed in that which does not exist.

VC flirts with similar emotions. To venture into the risk of creating a company, in sectors where immediate collapse is most likely, requires a hope like that of the Greeks in their gods. Promises of triumph have to be painted; adventures of great return. There is something fictional about these stories-in the grand promises that are often made. But they are necessary. Only then could a soldier throw himself before the inclemency of battle; only then can he convince himself to make such risky investments. There is something charming about everything. You leave wanting more, like the heroes always left the Oracle ready for their adventures.

Maybe, and just maybe, that was the real reason why, several months ago now, I was reminded of the Oracle when talking about VC. In both concepts, I saw the same enthusiasm for combining myth with reality. I found the emotion that, childishly, I attributed to the Greeks and today I see, can be added to so many other things.

That, in short, is where my affection for the VC comes from. For its parallel with the oracle; for its ability to enter into human anxiety in the face of an uncertain future. And, above all, for a shared feeling of creating great things—so great that they affect reality itself.

From the Nido,

José Luis S.