As an angel investor, I sometimes envy entrepreneurs. They are on an exciting journey, during which they are going to learn a lot. There are new challenges they have to overcome daily, which makes them much smarter at the end of the day. Whether or not they become financially successful, they will definitely become more mature, because they have to master so many different skills on the job while growing the company.
The good news is that as an angel investor, I get to learn a lot as well. Sometimes I think I learn even more than the entrepreneurs do, because I can look at the big picture. I can look at the forest, because I don’t get stuck cutting down the trees. I don’t have to worry about getting my hands dirty daily in actually solving the problems.
Also, because I learn from so many different founders in companies which are in different domains and at different stages of their evolution, I can apply what I learn from one to another, helping me to get a bigger perspective.
Both founders and funders can learn from each other, and they can both teach each other. The best way of approaching this relationship is as a partnership, which is based on both respect and trust. If we understand the value which the other brings to the table, the chances of the company growing and succeeding increases enormously.
Part of the problem is that we’re so focused on trying to fix the problems which the entrepreneur has to deal with, and we give them so much grief over their failures, that we forget to celebrate the successes. We forget to give entrepreneurs credit for all the innovative solutions they have created on the fly.
Growing a startup is a long journey, but if we respect each other, it should be much more fun, no matter what the final outcome is !
