Walk this way, talk this way … like this
“We Put Founders First”. There were several situations over the course of the last month where we had an opportunity to put this core value into practice. While it takes a little more time and thought, we think it's worth the effort:
It's important that founders we partner with have similar values to us, and that we build this alignment early on. When we write a term sheet to lead a new deal (as we did this past month), we don’t just send a legal doc, we include language that encapsulates our brand, shares our values and discusses how we like to partner with founders.
There can be incredible value in post-investment support. We onboarded two new portfolio companies in July, done not with an email saying ‘welcome aboard’ but with a meeting where all 10 members of our team introduced themselves and shared how they can provide support. We lean in every month in coaching calls to help with sales, hiring, fundraising and any other thing that is needed.
We like to celebrate wins. Last month we added our newest process to recognize our founders with exits, not with a bottle of champagne but with a custom award citing the things they did best, accompanied by a personal letter expressing what we admired about our time working together.
It’s much easier if you only deploy capital, it’s hard to build lifelong relationships and a brand that stands out.
