One question VCs don't get asked?enough:

Are you the tortoise or the hare?

In 6th grade, my teacher had us read a translation of Aesop’s Fables. Most notably, the tortoise and the hare. Like most 6th graders, I dismissed the message behind these stories (just like I dismissed the surface area to volume ratio in 7th grade geometry), but years later, I find the meaning (of both) to be ever-present in my life.

The Tortoise and the Hare is a story about a hare who taunts a tortoise about speed until finally the tortoise challenges the hare to a race. The hare is much faster and sprints ahead right at the outset, getting a meaningful lead until the hare gets hubris, stops for a nap, and wakes up just in time to see the tortoise cross the finish line first.

Often times when I meet companies I want to understand if the founder thinks like the tortoise: slow and steady, thoughtful, yet persistent or like the hare: hot out the gates, gaining a meaningful headstart, but ultimately becoming their own demise.

Founders should wonder the same of their investors. Do they think like the tortoise: deliberate and thoughtful growth, slow and steady about building a sustainable business, or do they think like the hare: growth at all costs, figure it out as you go, and perhaps prioritizing the wrong things.

I carry an obvious bias towards responsible, sustainable growth. At Fika Ventures we call these “visionary pragmatists” — those who are bold with their vision but thoughtful with their day-to-day steps in getting there. I’d rather invest in a founder who wants to build a capital efficient, unit-economic-positive business that has an opportunity for hyper growth than a founder who believes they should grow revenue, users, or headcount at all costs and the rest will figure itself out.

Now, don’t get me wrong, in the end, we all want to win the race, but like the tortoise or the hare, we have different strategies on how to get there. Before accepting an investor’s money, you want to make sure your strategies are aligned.

Founder-VC relationships are often about managing expectations, but it’s equally important to know if you have fundamentally different approaches to scaling a company.

You can’t afford to wait until after their investment to find out.

So, the next time you’re raising money, I challenge you to find out:is your VC a tortoise or a hare?