"The Best Founders"

A comment on a comment people say.

Sometimes people use phrases that I don’t understand, but I ignore them because they don’t seem important. #NoCap. Sometimes, I just want to question it a little to understand it better.

In early stage venture capital there has been a rise of a phrase where people say “The Best Founders,” as in, “Oh that’s not where you find “The Best Founders.” Or “The Best founders come out of X Location.”

To me, “The best founder” would be defined by building an iconic company over 20 years. So either these people know something I don’t (which is entirely possible), or their definition of “The best founder,” is different than mine.

My point is that we don’t know who “The Best Founders” are at the earliest stages because they haven’t been through the crucible of commitment yet:

• Brian Armstrong from Coinbase was passed on by 100 investors and didn’t successfully raise his seed round. Undervalued for the market they were going after.

• Matt Tan of Etherscan was rejected by us twice before we invested in the company, which now defines “Blockchain search.” Undervalued for location they were building the company.

• Doug Bernauer of Radiant Nuclear was overlooked because he didn’t have a network in Silicon Valley and was building a company in a “High Capex” category.

• Talia Frankel of This is L was building a condom company that would donate condoms to Africa.

Not one of these founders came through the same funnel to get to me, but I would rate them all on an asymmetric “Best Founders” curve.

I believe when people say “Best Founder”, they mean “This is the type of founder that will fundraise well.” Which in my experience doesn’t endure, however may give the founders more shots on goal.

Or they have a very personal definition of what the best founder is, and it may not translate across to other investors. Or they are saying it because it’s something that Limited Partners are looking for us to say.

I was at a bar once, and I was talking to one of the great VCs of the previous era at a party and I made a comment that was casual about great founders, and he corrected me that “Great founders come in all shapes and sizes.”

So if you have found where all the “Best Founders” go. That would be great, I’d love to find that place and be invited. But before you say “Best Founders” again, just know that I’m not sure that we know who the best are until 20 years later.

It’s a game of endurance. The best endure. Everyone else stops when it gets hard.