Thread by @MacConwell

1/ this thread is a PSA and potential lesson to founders and other fund managers/VCs. When you build in public you have to share the good with the bad. Last week we had our first @RareBreedVC company fail and go to zero but that is only the beginning of this story

2/ Last week while I was taking part in our most recent @KauffmanFellows module, one of my founders reached out to me to chat and then offered to meet in person (I was 2 hours away from them). This was unusual for the founder so I can admit I was a little worried.

3/ The founder, who is only 20, met up with me (and this was our first time meeting in person), sat me down, and then proceeded to tell me how challenging things had been and that he was thinking of shutting down 😢😢😢

4/ I could see how tense he was and how heavy this had been weighing on him. Before I could talk he went on to tell me that if he did shut things down he'd give his investors back some money and was working on an acqua-hire to make sure their engineer had a job out of it

5/ I don't know what the founder was expecting but I don't think it was what he got. I basically told him it was ok. If he wanted to use the money in the bank to try something else, that was ok. if he wanted to shut down and go back to college as a normal 20yd that was cool too.

6/ I then told him how proud I was of all the work he did and how he tried so hard to push through some really thought situations and I respect his integrity to make sure he got his engineer a job out of it.

7/ I then gave him some words of encouragement, some career advice, and a big hug. Then I told him to stay in touch and that I'll be here to back his next thing.

8/ Sure, a company in our portfolio going to zero sucks but this is a people business and most of the companies we will invest in will go to zero. It wasn't a moment to think about that but a time to lift up and support an entrepreneur who was going through it.

9/ We aren't going to get every investment right and at times like this, it will always serve you best to be in the founder's corner and let them know it's ok and to get back at it again. RareBreed will be a top fund while supporting our founders through the good and the bad