The Exchanges

Q advisor and a coach, and is coaching more one-off, like, you know, you, you, you had a one-hour call with So, you know, for example, a CEO of a billion dollar company, would you call that a coach or is coaching more continuous in process for aligning a certain outcome? And we are talking in all in respect of an early stage founder trying to go to the next stage.

A Yeah, I think, I think, um, Again, I, I, I try to think about this as sort of functional in nature for advisership. So advisership is usually I go to this person for some domain expertise, and that's a highly functional relationship. For example, I don't really know how to price my product. That kind of question can be, um, answered with incredible effectiveness and efficiency with people who have that domain expertise. And there's a certain Functional gain from talking to people quickly about those topics so that you don't have to wander in the woods yourself. That's more classically how I think of advisership. Coaching is answering questions like, Hey, I I'm worried today because I am not sure that we're going to be able to meet our goals for this year. And if we do that, we might run out of money and I'm not sure that my investors are going to give me more money. And because of that, I'm trying to figure out, should I be focused on raising more money from other people? Because I'm just not sure we're going to hit our financial goals. And there's a certain subjectivity to handling that question, which is not domain specific and can't just be answered with a piece of paper. And I think usually speaking, there's two different types of people that, that play these types of roles. Advisors tend to be able to answer questions with efficiency and coaches tend to be able to walk you…

AI assessment note: “coaches tend to be able to walk you through what sometimes is a more continuous journey”

Q And John, uh, uh, you mentioned that you had a few pivots, like not one pivot, but a few pivots. How did you survive during that painful period?

A Well, I would say in the beginning for us, it always felt like we were pivoting, and I actually think this is quite common. I actually now don't describe early stage product development as pivoting as much as I, I call it continuous improvement. Cause I think it's a more positive way of describing what is a very natural process of, you know, finding product market fit. I think people think that product market fit is you sit on a whiteboard and you design a product, you build it, and then you introduce it to the market and people magically buy it. But I've come to believe that product market fit is really found by taking two rough stones and grinding them together, right? One, one rough stone is your product. The other rough stone is the market. And If you, if you can't actually find product market fit, you create it by grinding and eventually, uh, you know, finding the ultimate fit between what you're trying to do and what the market will need. In our particular case, we went into the market with a bunch of great ideas, thinking that instant messaging would be a widespread communication medium, which it was, but the industry dynamics didn't allow us to create as many of the fun applications as we wanted to create. Uh, but it was, uh, it was certainly in the case that, that the market was looking for something that would protect users while they were using it. And so we, you kno…

AI assessment note: “we, you know, whether you're lucky or whether you're smart... continued to iterate”

Q Don, you choose Cisco as a partner. Are they, are Cisco the single LP in the fund? How is the partnership like?

A Well, I, it probably is helpful if I tell you a little bit about how, how it came together, and then I can describe, um, the role that they play, and the value that they add, and, and how we've, Come together over the course of the last couple of years. So in I left NEA and I created Decibel in partnership with Cisco. My simple view on the industry is that we're now in a very large and very diverse market in venture capital. Founders have a lot of choices and in particular, it's important for founders to try to find investors that will create the biggest unfair advantages and, and provide the most value to their company so that they can figure out a way to find product market fit and to scale as quickly as possible. So in. I think one of the great opportunities that I saw was to unbundle what I thought was the best of independent venture capital. Uh, so I, I had come from, uh, one of the oldest and largest and most storied venture capital funds, which really taught me a lot about what was great about the business. And I also worked with some really amazing venture capitalists at firms like Benrock associates, which again is one of the oldest and most traditional of venture funds. They were, they were one of the early investors in my company. So I, I felt like I had some, uh, firsthand experience with really great early stage work. And I felt like that is still today. Some, some…

AI assessment note: “helpful if I tell you a little bit about how, how it came together”

Q founders. My first question there is, can early stage founder afford professional coaches? And second, you know, do they have time to engage because early stages is not, lot about, you know, getting the rocket off the ground. And all the energy spent countless nights and days are spent in, in doing that. And the third is, you know, how do you find these coaches who are ready to mentor?

A These are all really great questions. Maybe I'll start with, uh, when I was younger, I, I didn't think I needed a coach. I certainly in fact thought coaching was taboo. I, um, you know, I, I think there's a certain natural disposition that we all have to, I, I don't need coaching. I already am a, probably an, uh, an unconventional thinker. If I'm a founder, I'm somebody that doesn't like to be told what to do. I'm somebody that, you know, believes my way is the best way. These are common characteristics of founders. I don't think you would start a company if you weren't somehow already a disruptive independent thinker. Uh, and I think conventionally many founders, including myself, Felt like coaching was something that you needed only if you had a problem. I think that that's, um, maybe where Over the course of two decades of myself going, having gone through coaching and having watched founders go through coaching, I think it's more common than people think. And which is one of the reasons why I'm trying to make it more public is I, I, I suspect many founders think, gee, these really successful founders have never had coaching, but the reality is many of them have. And And perhaps there's a unfortunate view that it's taboo to use coaching when in fact it's actually quite an asset and a benefit for people to have coaching. And when I, when I look at other parts of the world, fo…

AI assessment note: “Maybe I'll start with, uh, when I was younger, I didn't think I needed a coach.”