Making Partnership Decisions
Life in my world is about ongoing partnership decisions – do I want to enter into an intensive partnership with this group? Seed stage investing is not passive…it is not a distanced financial analysis, but rather a series of deep relationships that develop. What we do is not very different than being part and parcel of the entrepreneurial group itself, but with a few VERY significant differences.
As this week begins, I think of today's Torah reading (weekly portion of Bible read aloud in synagogue), and how it is connected to my business life. Genesis, which we began today, is about the ultimate start-up, known as the World, Earth, and Life as we know it. You all know the story…God creates Earth day-by-day…until the big day, when people are created (notice I did not say Man).
If you take the time (not more than a few minutes), and read over Genesis, you will note that there are several creation stories. In one, God creates "them, male and female God created them." And then there is the more [in]famous story, of God creating "Man," who is called Adam, who gets lonely, and so God creates a "helpmate," which is Eve.
Throughout the creation chapters of Genesis there is another interesting point to note, which is that God speaks in the plural (brought up by today's bar-mitzvah boy whose celebration we attended, Yonatan Deutsch). God says that Man is being created in "our image." So it seems there are some unnamed cofounders that the editors of the Bible have left out.
OK, so we could talk forever about Genesis – what's the connection to running a seed stage venture fund? Pretty straightforward – while there are co-founders coming to us, we see ourselves as basically extended co-founders of the company. And we represent not only ourselves – but also our unnamed investors. And then we need to bring to life a vision of a company, which in many ways is a world unto itself.
I am not calling us God in any way (our resources are much more limited;-)), but we are partners in creation. And relatively shortly, when the history of the company is told, there might be several creation stories told, all "true" to the people telling them.
So Genesis for me, amongst much else, reminds me that beginnings are very important, that it takes many partners to create, and that in time the creation will stand on its own – and the facts of how it came to be will not be the most important element – but rather whether the "world" we create is something we can be proud of (not so different than our children).
May we be blessed to choose the right partners for creation – and may we always be proud of what we bring to life.
Have a beautiful week!
Jacob
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