VCs and Orphans

When I jumped 2.5 years ago from Freestyle to Climactic with Raj Kapoor , I hoped my relationships with the founders I’d previously backed while at Freestyle would continue but it was truly the great unknown. I committed to all of the founders whose rounds I'd led that i would be proactive, stay on their boards, etc until they raised their next round of capital and I could pass the baton to the next lead investor. BUT orphaned founders is a real thing in venture when a VC moves on from his/her fund. And I had a brand new sparkling mission and co-founder in Raj, so it would take vigilance. The founders and I moved tentatively, testing the waters of our new relationship.

Not surprisingly the 1 or 2 weaker connections became weaker and the stronger connections either maintained status quo and in more cases than I expected, became far deeper. In fact, in the case of Superside , when they raised their next round, Fredrik Thomassen , the CEO, asked me to stay on as an independent and I even invested personally. In another, Climactic is actually leading the next round of funding for the company (look for a post on that soon). So I decided to explore what made the founder/VC bond stronger. The jump from Freestyle certainly changed me and gave me a more evolved perspective on, well everything. It helped me identify and focus on the things that matter most and jettison the rest. The small stuff gets to me less and I generally have more curiosity.

Back to insights. So yes I was different but more importantly, being on the board yet no longer as the GP, altered the power dynamics between founder and investor. I could do a whole post just on the holy trio of roles that we all embody: savior, victim, bully, but thats for another time. I have been told that I am a founder's VC, as a two-time founder myself, so I did start from a good base. However, I noticed now that we shared more with greater vulnerability and less formality. Once the fear and authority figure crap was stripped out, our authenticity surged. We had gravitas but also were more relaxed and certainly more open. We shared more personal issues that might be impacting our roles. Our relationship became more honest, productive and believe it or not, more joyful. Of course all of this makes sense to me, since we are just humans deriving our greatest happiness from deep connections.

Now I have to figure out how to capture this new dynamic in my relationships with founders I am backing at Climactic. I commit to you, my current and future founder partners, that I will do my part to create a safe space for us to be real and supportive, and I will be present and attentive as you share what is most important to you. While this is def a work-in-process, I already see lots of light in our future.