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sarahtavel's profile
Sarah Tavel
Sarah Tavel
Sarah Tavel
@sarahtavel

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Sarah Tavel

@sarahtavel

At @Benchmark, I invest in consumer, marketplaces, & crypto. Formerly product @pinterest. Ball and chain for @cklemke and 👶🏼.

san francisco
medium.com/@sarahtavel
Joined May 2008

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    1. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019

      One of the wheels you need to get on the track: you need to shift your focus to your process and inputs, not the outcome. It’s more like the uncertainty and unpredictability of gardening than building a house brick-by-brick.

      5 replies 16 retweets 290 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019

      Many operators make too many investments their 1st yr bc they are (a) not calibrated, & (b) used to achieving outcomes & therefore focus on the tangible outcome “making an investment”. It takes a while to internalize that the true outcome for VCs is "return capital to your LPs.”

      4 replies 10 retweets 223 likes
      Show this thread
    3. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019

      This is part of what makes VC easy to “do” (make investments), and really freaking hard to be great at (generate great returns). So mentally prepare yourself for months of activity and no tangible evidence, and a looooong feedback cycle.

      3 replies 10 retweets 240 likes
      Show this thread
    4. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019

      Second, in venture, you make basically ten big decisions a year – ~8 companies that you really dug in on and ultimately passed (or lost), ~2 that you say yes to and invest in. Those decisions are big one-way door decisions. Once you say yay or nay, there is no going back.

      1 reply 5 retweets 162 likes
      Show this thread
    5. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019

      And then of course, the feedback cycle on those decisions are YEARS. YEARS! With plenty of ups and downs in between. At Pinterest, I’d ship an experiment and three days later have a good sense for whether the experiment was going to be good or bad.

      4 replies 3 retweets 124 likes
      Show this thread
    6. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019

      It’s a crazy transition. Operating, you’re making dozens of two-way door decisions every day. The one-way door decisions are exceedingly rare. The adjustment is another wheel you must get on the tracks.

      1 reply 5 retweets 109 likes
      Show this thread
    7. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019

      Lastly, when you’re operating, you feel the stress of execution. As a VC, you trade that stress for anxiety: You have the anxiety of making one-way door decisions on a potential investment, and the anxiety of influencing but not controlling the outcome after you invest.

      4 replies 14 retweets 194 likes
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    8. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019

      It’s impt to internalize this last point. Too many operators think they’ll transition to VC and “scratch their operating itch” by working with their companies. NO! That’s a delusion & unhealthy for companies. You’ll need to find other outlets (tweet storms!) to scratch that itch.

      6 replies 15 retweets 275 likes
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    9. Daniel Ek‏Verified account @eldsjal 19 May 2019
      Replying to @sarahtavel

      Great tweetstorm. Why do you say investors shouldn't scratch their operating itch? Doesn't that depend on process?

      3 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
    10. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019
      Replying to @eldsjal

      Thanks Daniel. It's a few things: 1) I think when people tell themselves that, they aren't facing the reality of the VC job. You might be able to dig in when you have a few companies, but it stops scaling very quickly.

      1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
      Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019
      Replying to @sarahtavel @eldsjal

      2) you might choose to invest in companies *bc* you imagine yourself helping them, which is dangerous both to you and the company. In the early days of a company you can definitely help, but very quickly your objective should be to make yourself redundant.

      3:34 PM - 19 May 2019
      • 10 Likes
      • Regina Landim Noppe Timur Insepov Crystal English Sacca Daniel Ek Zal Bilimoria Ryan Sarver 👨🏻‍💻☕️ Sar Haribhakti
      2 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Sarah Tavel‏ @sarahtavel 19 May 2019
          Replying to @sarahtavel @eldsjal

          and 3) I think you need to be *really really* excellent as an operator to be able to help when you're not in the company full time.

          2 replies 1 retweet 11 likes
        3. Sara Mauskopf‏Verified account @sm 19 May 2019
          Replying to @sarahtavel @eldsjal

          Bless your heart. Couldn’t agree more!

          0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
        4. End of conversation
        1. New conversation
        2. Ryan Hoover‏Verified account @rrhoover 19 May 2019
          Replying to @sarahtavel @eldsjal

          Related to this: I’ve made the mistake of investing in something based on my vision+strategy of what it could be, not the founder’s vision+strategy. Of course I’m not doing the _real_ work. :)

          1 reply 1 retweet 23 likes
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