Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 1:03PM I was reading an interview of Sachin Agarwal on Mashable today and one quote stuck out so I figured I'd post it here so I can look back on it later on.
"Success means being able to do what I enjoy every single day."
Thursday, January 6, 2011 at 6:59PM I had a nice chat with an investor recently (someone who I'd also consider a friend and advisor) and we got onto the topic of choosing which investors (and advisors) to work with. Today you have so many options to choose from when raising a round of funding such as family, friends, angels, VCs, micro VCs, super angels and super duper ultra awesome VCs (I may have made that last one up). But it's not about just getting money anymore, it's about surrounding yourself with people that can provide serious support to you and your business.
He talked about how back in the day you weren't able to spin up a new company over the course of a weekend. It took $10MM, a lot of Sun servers in a datacenter and a team of 20-30 people of which 3 would be dedicated to keeping your machines from melting or exploding. At this point when you needed to make a business decision you were surrounded by smart people who knew your world and would provide valuable input all along the way.
Today you can setup shop in under 24 hours and be serving thousands of users in a matter of weeks and maybe even 1MM in only 15 days like Kik. This is great news for people that want to build a company but it also means that you're probably only one or two people in a coworking space pumping out code, designing web pages and interacting with your community. When it comes time to make the big decisions you need help. This is where your investors come in.
See, here's the difference: A good investor wants to make money and hopes you succeed. A great investor needs to make money and will do anything to make sure you succeed. When it comes time to choose your investors and advisory board, always be sure that you surround yourself with people who are smart, dedicated and really believe in your team. These people will not only send you checks but they'll make introductions, go to bat for you and even pick you up when you're feeling down. In today's startup world this is a great way to give yourself a leg up on the competition.
