When was the last time a company wasn’t the leader in its market?
Or a venture firm wasn’t top-tier?
Or your bio didn’t imply that you have had nothing but success in your life?
A search for “leading venture capital” on Google returns 40,000 web pages. Apparently, there are a lot of really good venture firms out there.
Proclaiming that you are the Master of the Universe does not differentiate you from the millions of other self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe. A little self-deprecation indicates that you are in touch with reality instead of an inveterate blowhard. I think the best bloggers use this strategy effectively.
So I have added the following to my About Me page:
To be fair, I should balance all of this self-glorification with some self-criticism. So… I’m a poor salesman, I’m not good with people, I stutter, I spend too much time on my computer, and my name is Nivi.
Yes, this self-critique is mostly light-hearted but it’s a start anyway.
I have always been impressed with Bessemer’s Anti-Portfolio:
[Our] long and storied history has afforded our firm an unparalleled number of opportunities to completely screw up.
[Ebay:] “Stamps? Coins? Comic books? You’ve GOT to be kidding,” thought [General Partner] Cowan. “No-brainer pass.”
[Google:] Cowan’s college friend rented her garage to Sergey and Larry for their first year. In 1999 and 2000 she tried to introduce Cowan to “these two really smart Stanford students writing a search engine”. Students? A new search engine? In the most important moment ever for Bessemer’s anti-portfolio, Cowan asked her, “How can I get out of this house without going anywhere near your garage?”
And OVP’s Deals Missed:
[Starbucks:] A guy walks into your office in the late 1980’s and says he wants to open a chain of retail shops selling a commodity product you can get anywhere for 25 cents, but he will charge 2 dollars. Of course, you listen politely, and then fall off your chair laughing when he leaves. Howard Shultz didn’t see this as humorous. And we didn’t make 500 times our money.
To get even (wasn’t our not making money enough?) years later, Howard opened his own venture capital firm right down the street.
Let the shining beacon of Nivi light your way. Go and do something transparent right now.
Nivi, great post and I agree with everything…excdept that you aren’t good with people. My limited interactions have all been very pleasant, even if you didn’t do what I wanted you to do (maybe I am a poor salesman?). :-)
nivi–you are also bad with driving directions.