A VC argues that investors often let ego dominate founder relationships, using capital to control conversations and lower valuations. Instead, he says VCs should listen like musicians in a jam session, amplifying what works rather than tearing ideas down.
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I think it is very easy for VCs to kind of, you know, it's a runaway ego job, right? You talk to VCs a lot and we love to hear ourselves think. We've got a practically open feedback loop where it's like 10 years before any of our things come back right or wrong. And, you know, people gave us $100 million plus to deploy. We think like, you know, we know something and everybody should really listen. And I think like, in a lot of ways, this kind of like VCs work to like create this power dynamic where they're talking down to founders. And I think that is fundamentally wrong. Getting back to this artist point, I think it's really critical when you come into the room with the founder to kind of have that like musician walking into a jam session and that like, hey, I could come in here and tell you that your thing sucks and it's wrong and all these things are gonna go bad, et cetera, you know, in an attempt to kind of take down your valuation, but startup founders don't need that. Yeah. The world is there to kind of beat them down. And like, your real job is to come in, see what's good, help them accentuate that, and kind of build or play something around them that makes that sound even better. And that's like a real mindset thing that, you know, and I— there are times that I, I definitely don't live up to that ideal, but I do think that's how you should enter the conversation with the founder.
