A few decades ago when I increased the financing for a startup, I had a sustainable impression of an investor by not only talking about how successful we would be, but also emphasize what would happen if we were not. Later I asked him in an informal environment what persuaded him to invest in us. He told me that I had said during the field: “And if all of our predictions and expectations are wrong, we will use the last of our financing for a great farewell dinner for all of our investors. You will have lost your money, but at least you will receive a great evening for it.”
I don’t remember that this is part of the original pitch or my strategy. I probably only found out to break the ice cream, but it impressed the investor. He told me that it was refreshing to speak to an entrepreneur who was not blinded by his own place. The fact that I prepared a scenario for both success and failure told him that I was honest and realistic.
Now the startup was not successful, but in the end we still had a nice, opulent dinner with the investors – and we did better. As soon as we found that our predictions and expectations were wrong, we made our investors an offer: we were able to fight and shoot and hope for a miracle, or we could return what was left of our financing. We preferred two option, and they also have, so everyone got some money back (about 40% of what they had invested) and a nice evening with excellent food and drinks. When we collected money for another startup a few years later, almost everyone registered in our first round.
Obviously, I would have preferred to have made this start -up instead of success, but I still consider it a successful undertaking. I tried it and let a plan ready when my experiment had not worked, and I built up relationships that survived a startup.
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A area of work for growth, cooperation and endless networking opportunities in the heart of technology.
As you may have read, the next web, the company I founded in 2006, is approaching the end of its life cycle. The events and the media business are processed, and only TNW rooms will live on. TNW programs were sold some time ago and are also continued. There will be no further TNW conference, and there will soon be no new articles on the website. People lose their work, including me. It’s a painful process, but I think I think it is good because it also feels natural and logical. When we sold TNW to FT in 2019, we were very ambitious and optimistic, and I would have liked the company and the brand to survive me. However, when the company had to fight, I also felt very comfortable because the company ended graciously.
When you read a good book, there is a moment towards the end when you read more slowly because you don’t want it to end. I love these moments because I will know that it was a good experience. But then you also know that good stories need good ends. This is the end of a great story in which I have liked to take part.
I will continue to write, but this will be my last official TNW story. I would love it if you subscribed to my letter to Substack. It is less technically aligned, more unpredictable, but just as revealing as before.
Boris, out.
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