Jillian Manus, a venture investor, draws on Navy SEAL training and Angela Duckworth's concept of grit to explain what she looks for in founders: perseverance, passion, integrity, and confidence. She shares pitch tips like smiling, eye contact, and owning your quirks, and criticizes mean-spirited investor behavior like what she sees on Shark Tank.
Chapters
I've heard you all just finished Survival Camp or something like that. Is that sort of correct? Yes. Okay. So I've been doing Survival Camp, but it's not camp. I've been working with the SEALs for a little over 15, now going on 16 years. And what they do is they drop me in the middle of nowhere, and I don't know where that is. It can be the forest, it can be a desert, it can be anywhere. And all I can do— and I'm alone, and I have an ankle bracelet on— and I have to go from point A A to Z within a certain amount of time. And I only have 5 things that I can choose in my backpack. So I usually do a tarp because it really depends. If I'm dropped into the desert, I actually sleep with a tarp over me during the day and then I move at night. I'll bring usually a knife, some salt tablets, air out of the water. And actually I bring a tiny little book, like a little wee book, sometimes of poetry, sometimes— A book. Of just images, it doesn't matter. But the fact is, is that the reason I do it is because I test myself to see if I can survive against all elements. If I have resilience, if I have grit. There's a great book called Grit, G-R-I-T, and it's by Angela Duckworth. And basically what she says is that that's the reason people succeed. It has nothing to do with talent. Oh darn. But it really has to do with 2 things. Perseverance and passion. Perseverance and purpose. Perseverance, period. And that's the reason. And that's the reason I test myself all the time. Because it's really all about you. I really care about what you're doing and I love it. As I said, we have this pitch called The Pitch. It was purchased by Gimlet Media. And I hear pitches constantly, all the time. And basically my pitch My thought as a venture capitalist is not to tear you down, but to build you up. And that's the reason I dislike— dislike? I abhor Shark Tank. And I sat with Kevin O'Leary and I had a conversation, I had dinner with him. And I said, I hate everything you do. Good to know. And he said, you're not really a wallflower though. And I said, no, I'm not a wallflower. But what I'm not is I'm not an unkind person. There's no reason to be mean. And the most important thing for me in an entrepreneur, and the one thing that I look for Perseverance. And? Passion. And? Purpose. Integrity. Integrity. If you guys don't have integrity, I can't do anything, okay? Because I'm not going to believe in you. And basically what you were just hearing is that all I want to do is believe in you. And I know that sounds like horse manure, but that's actually the truth. And for me is what I'm doing is I am investing in you, okay? So the why that you all hear about, and I'm sure you've all listened to Simon Sinek's talk, right? If you haven't, shame on you. It's a TED Talk, and it's called The Why. And it is the emotional connection to your product. And that's the first slide that's going to come up, and I should have a little thingy, but maybe— oh yeah, I did. Good enough. OK. Just going to start with the why. But I don't want you to read this yet. Don't read this yet. OK. There's another one that goes before that. This is the why. See, why. Okay, I just came up with that, I'd just like you to know. This is the why. And the why is you. The why is why am I going to invest in you? What's so great about you? Do you have integrity? I'm hoping so. Do you have confidence? You better have confidence. Do you have resilience? Do you have perseverance? Do you have leadership qualities? Why? When I— one of the guys I had a pitch from came He came in like this. This is a big why. He came in, first of all, he had no shoes on, which is fine. He doesn't wear shoes. I'm good with that. A little bit dangerous, but I'm good with that. So he came in and he sat down and this was his fit. Hey. So, my company. Okay, so there are a couple things, first of all. First of all, sit your ass down. Sit up in the chair when you're going to pitch. Second of all, I don't really want to see your legs spread open. Third, if you don't want to wear shoes, that's perfectly fine, but own that. Don't be like, oh, I forgot to put shoes on this morning. Well, if you're forgetting to put your shoes on in the morning, what the hell are you starting a company for? You're not going to be able to remember anything. And so that was like bing, bing, bing. Okay. But even if he had come in, okay, when you come in, that first 5 seconds, I know you. You've got to come in and you've got to smile at me. If you don't smile, I'm gonna have a problem with that. So you gotta smile at me, look me in the eye, and if you have a problem looking me in the eye, I told my children, look me right in the middle of the forehead, right? Because if you look at something in the middle of the forehead, that actually— you actually think that you're looking in your eyes. If I go like this, I'm actually not looking in your eyes, I'm looking at your forehead, and you're like, okay, I can do that. Look me in the forehead or the eyes, shake my hand, say hello. I want to I want to feel your energy. I want to feel that you believe in yourself and I believe in you. Okay? And that's it. Please do not scowl at me. Don't act pulky. I can't deal with that. I want to hear— I want to see confidence and I want to see resilience. Years ago—
