People often ask me how I enjoy being a venture capitalist and why don’t I go back and “crush it again” as an operator?
My answer to them is always the same — if I have the opportunity to work with amazing founders and can help “influence” them to some modicum of success, then it is actually very similar to the work I did at Salesforce and others.
The greatest moments and the best successes of my “operational” career were always some version of the same story:
- Hire amazing people who were actually far better than they knew.
- Provide them strong guidance with some tough love along the way.
- Get the hell out of their way.
For those of you out there (at last count I think their combined worth would allow them to purchase Greenland) with whom I have had these amazing opportunities, thank you.
And so, venture investing, especially at the Seed Stage (revenue is sub $250K ARR, 5–15 people tops, etc.), is all about entering into some long-term partnerships with some amazing founders.
Which brings me to what will forever be known as “Brett’s first VC deal” — Aforza. I do fear that every subsequent institutional investment I make will be compared to this one — which I am pretty confident will be a tough measure. To understand my excitement, let me share with you my thoughts on the team, the opportunity, and the traction / potential for traction. Thanks as well to Alex Kayyal & the Salesforce Ventures team for joining us on this investment.
