Forcing Function
Everyone is having the same conversation at the beginning of every zoom call right now, all in relation and reaction to the coronavirus:
“I’m good, figuring out how to work at home.”
“I’m fine, …*Description of the Coronavirus situation”
“Things are great, we just need to raise a little bit of capital.”
We are in a fear driven market. “Fear driven market,” to me means that the problem drives the decision making, rather than the opportunity. A enormous boulder just splashed into the middle of the lake and we are all fish running away from the boulder explaining to the other fish what the hell the boulder is, why it’s happening and what we are doing in relation to the boulder.
This is the first unknown decision making environment I have been in as an investor/operator. I have never been through a global pandemic, I have never experienced a global quarantine lockdown, and I’ve never witnessed true economic uncertainty in my career. I’m not sure what the playbook is, but I am watching what is happening very closely.
At Boost VC, we chose to focus on the community, and force hard decisions on founders. Basically fast forwarding decisions they may have had to make 6 months from now, today. And the response has been swift and incredible.
Like VCs should be triggering hard decisions to founders, the virus itself has triggered hard decisions for the broader humanity. What is important to you? How do you prepare for an unforeseen threat? How can you still be productive?
We have been forced to figure out how to work from home with teams at scale, we have been forced to build trust over the internet with the intent to invest, we have been forced to make decisions we should have made anyway but on a more rapid pace.
The virus is a forcing function.
More startups are making hard decisions today
Startups are considering the “don’t raise venture capital” route with more haste
Some startups are actively choosing to shut down their companies
Investors are being forced to decide on their portfolio and how to truly support it
As a startup, you can delude yourself into thinking that the market from 3 months ago will be here after all this is over, or you can use this event as a forcing function to push your survival and growth.
We need Sci-Fi heroes more than ever. Those ambitious founders who make the hard decisions for the world and build the impossible. You are all problem solvers, go solve some problems.