Being an early stage startup founder and an active angel investor sends a negative signal to your team. Reinforces a class divide and perception of not being all in (yes it’s rational to diversify but irrational belief is what people follow and what stops them starting their own)
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Depends on what your definition of active is. I’ve made investments in friends and talented founders I’ve met along the way, all while focused on my business. If anything its made me a stronger founder — you learn from others as much as they learn from you.
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Replying to @falonfatemi @garrytan
I was a founder, then active and successful angel investor before going back to being a founder. There's very minimal, if any, learning that makes you a better founder. Even if there were more, any unit of learning will be outweighed by the negative signal it sends to team.
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Guess it’s dependent on your mindset and investment focus etc. Again I appreciate your perspective but I see it and am living a different truth.
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I’ve gotten and given a ton of value from founders I’ve invested in like organic intros to talent and investors and transferring learning from their context to my own. It’s turned into a support system. I’m not apart of the YC community so you might have a blind spot here.
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Replying to @falonfatemi @garrytan
None of that refutes my actual point re signal sent to team. There are lots of obvious benefits to angel investing for founders, in both directions. Doesn't change the message it sends to team.
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Replying to @harjtaggar @harjeet and
What's the negative signal sent to the team? That s/he is not fully focused on work? In that case, can a founder have any hobbies outside work w/o sending that signal? Or you think it sends a signal that a founder doesn't believe fully in equity value of his or her own company?
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Both. In absence of product/market fit, smart people will choose to work for the founders they perceive as being more focused, working harder and whose hobbies aren't mentioned in Techcrunch.
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Replying to @harjtaggar @harjeet and
All else being equal, I'd agree. But there are lots of other factors that affect whether a team wants to follow a leader -- factors (often emotional ones) that are more important IMO than whether the CEO works 80 hrs a week vs. 100 hrs a week w/ no hobbies.
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Obviously, people want to work for people not robots. The point is not all hobbies are equal in how they affect your ability to build and retain a team. Totally fine to decide you don't want to optimize your hobbies for the latter so long as you're aware they do have an effect.
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Replying to @harjtaggar @harjeet and
Agreed. :) Where I differ is that, of all the varied athletic/artistic/intellectual hobbies in the world, startup investing/advising strike me as comparatively *helpful* to a startup CEO's primary focus: their startup. Knowledge, network, recruiting, etc. Will write more in blog
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