We have a saying at Boost VC — “Be the Cockroach.”, first written in 2015.
This concept was driven by three things:
We were investing $10-15k into startups at the time (not $100k, 10k), so the startups didn’t have long to live if all they depended on was our capital
We had gone all in on Bitcoin startups early, and no one cared about Bitcoin. No VC would back our deals.
The companies we never had to worry about, we called cockroaches… because they just wouldn’t die.
At this point some of Boost VC’s greatest wins are cockroaches (Etherscan, Shakepay, Ripio, Polychain, Coinbase, Favor Delivery, Cognito) The resting state of the Boost VC portfolio was winter. We were in a winter all the time, and didn’t know it… it was just called life.
I still smile whenever a startup references “Cockroaching,” to me. They may not know it, but Boost VC in some small way impacted that phrase to be used over the last 7 years.
To be a cockroach is to build in the winter, and build for the sake of building. There’s a state of mind that is created during hard times where you build to solve the problem that you set out to solve. Blinders on. Focus gets strong.
We are running into a winter. Get your blinders on and focus. Get to cockroaching.
And to quote the title of the book that Charles Barkley wrote: “I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It.”