A Startup Founder’s Most Important Job
I was sitting in JFK airport at the end of a two day, intensive fundraising trip to New York City. It was the kind of trip founders occasionally have to make when they’re looking for funding but don’t live in a major hub of venture capital.
The trip took place over 10 years ago, but it was such a miserable journey that I still get frustrated thinking about it. It was January, and the city was bitterly cold. But that didn’t stop me from hustling across the city nonstop the entire time. Before leaving, I’d spent weeks planning every minute to make sure it was packed with relevant meetings. After all, to a founder in the early stages of launching his company, every penny and every second felt precious. I had to make the journey worth the cost.
From 30 minute coffees with local angels, to pitch meetings with VC partners, to happy hour cocktails with young Wall Street guys exploring alternate investment strategies, I was determined to get funded. In total, I scheduled 13 meetings across roughly 36 hours. Toss in a few hours of sleep on a leaky air mattress in my friend’s cramped, uptown studio apartment, and I had a meeting roughly every 2 hours.
It wasn’t the first time I’d made a trip like that. And it wouldn’t be the last time. But it was the worst of those trips because every meeting went poorly. When I took the long subway…
