When I started VC investing I thought my job was to take the biggest risks I could find. Twenty years later I think something entirely different /1
I don't want to take technology risk. R&D takes an unpredictable amount of time and no VC can fund an R&D project for an indeterminate period of time. The technology should already work when I invest /2
I don't want to take financing risk...though I can't really avoid it, I try to mitigate it as much as possible by always knowing where the next round of funding is going to come from /3
I don't want to take founder risk, or co-founder risk. It's always there, of course, we are only human, but having a board of directors involved is a must here /4
I don't want to take exit risk (especially the "we'll sell it to greater fools in three years" type), I want people building companies that eventually become self-financing /5
The only risk I want to take is market risk: can these founders help build a new market for their product that will be big enough to absolve them of all the mistakes they'll inevitably make along the way /6
And that risk I'll take as much of as you have to sell. /7
