Tech entrepreneurs fall into two camps: those who speculate about the future and those who ask what it means for their business right now. The speaker invests in the lean-forward types, the ones already thinking about concrete next steps.
Discussions with entrepreneurs, particularly tech entrepreneurs, can sometimes turn into speculations about the future. And I sometimes call those lean back conversations, back and opining about their thoughts about the world. And I find those to be a lot less helpful. I like to look at the question of what's coming through the lens of how does this affect your business? I call those lean in conversations because you're leaning forward, thinking about the problems of the space, thinking about how your market's actually evolving, thinking about what you can do about it. That leads to a much more productive conversation. So I would suggest the next time you're having a conversation about, hey, where are things going? Ask yourself, how are you sitting? How are you leaning forward? Are there other people in the room? Who's doing which? The ones who are leaning forward, those are the ones who are thinking about what they can do, and that will lead to action. And that's what I like to invest.
