I am an entrepreneur.
I have no money. I work very hard. I pay for stuff with lots of credit cards (above). My pregnant wife and child live with my parents. I live somewhere else. I quit a 6 figure job at a F100 to make about $80 a month. I stay up all night occasionally to take customer calls. Sometimes I yell at myself in the shower. I love what I do. This is the kind of shit where you earn that title. Entrepreneur.
You are viewing: Where’s My Money Lebowski
Entrepreneurs are separated into two discrete camps – those who have done it (or built a successful business/exit), and those who have not. Or. Those who have been fed, and those who are starving. Just as there is sequel-mania in the film and video game industries, entrepreneurs who have done it have a way easier job of doing it again for one primary reason – they are way more “fundable.” In a world of utmost uncertainty, a familiar face and a track record goes a long way towards securing a round of investment and alleviating uncertainty. This is what makes it that much harder for the entrepreneurs who are truly earning the badge for the first time. Like me. One time an adviser told me, “it is not the business, it is you.” I was like, ‘duuude, I. am. right. here.’ He was referring to my lack of experience.
Read more : Where To Buy Candles For Ear Candling
But. First time entrepreneurs are going to have a higher deviation in results, and a back against the wall dynamic where making something work remarkably well is not an option, or even a job, but a way of life. There is a strange spirituality to a first time entrepreneur situation that I imagine is hard to recreate and lends itself to breakthrough. There is creative beauty in desperation. I see it every day.
Many investors will tell you that they take venture risk according to a power law distribution – that the gains of one home run must offset the mediocrity or even shittiness of the rest of the firms in the portfolio. If this is really the case, then they should be chasing deviation – chasing the kind of risk a first time entrepreneur brings to the table. Honestly, I don’t think they truly invest according to a power law. That is just some gangster shit they say. I believe they invest with two things in mind – fear and fomo. Most venture capital follows; it is just the way it is. They are scared to invest until they are scared they might miss out.
There is a scene at the beginning of the Big Lebowski where Jackie Treehorn’s goons show up at The Dudes house and ask for money. They say, “Where’s the money Lebowski,” and try to coax it out of him – even though it is not the right place, let alone the right Lebowski. My experience with getting funded is almost identical to this situation. I feel like a goon. I feel like those I ask for money are not the right Lebowski.
Read more : Where To Place Handles On Shaker Cabinets
Menguin has been written about on Forbes, Buzzfeed, Inc, the NYT, Entrepreneur, hell, even Fox news did a segment on us. We can’t afford a PR firm; we are just a great brand that gets noticed. Our NPS is 3 points higher than Zappos, in an 84% negative sentiment industry. Our run rate is about 15x our deployed funding to date. We moved our team to Arkansas because we believed it could give us an edge. Arkansas*! We have the best team in the startup game by a mile. We will literally do whatever it takes to win, but we have never been funded with a true round aside from a business plan competition and small bridge notes. Why? The bias against first time entrepreneurs is a big part of it. How do we find the right Lebowski? How can you prove you are a winner before you have won?
So to close, to every VC, PE, or Super-Angel investor out there. Keep doing the same thing. Keep getting the same results. If you want a break-through, then break-through the status quo. Entrepreneurs who have had success usually come with full bellies, likely some dogma, probably even Teslas, and in a way, they lose that spirit and survival urgency that made them such great entrepreneurs to begin with. Sometimes to find the next great multi-sequel blockbuster franchise you have to take a chance on the next great hungry entrepreneur.
UP NEXT: 10 things I learned about entrepreneurship from travel
*In defense. The state of Arkansas has moved faster than any investor we have dealt with in committing capital to Menguin. They have been great.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHERE
