When The Dragons Emerge

Posted on July 16, 2010. Filed under: Uncategorized |

I feel like partnering with an investor is a bit like searching for your dragon in the film Avatar. There are many dragons out there, all of which are capable of connecting to your strange hair braid or whatever that thing is, but there is only 1 dragon that perfectly complements you. You have to approach a bunch of dragons, look them in the eye, most will turn away, but one will get a crazy look in their eye and decide that they want to tangle. At that point, you need to fight them for a while, deflect their various attacks and attempts to kill you dead (they are just testing you), and then, if you survive the tussle, and earn their respect, you’ve learned how each other operate, and you can form a bond. That bond is a partnership. From that point forward, you communicate without effort, and fly or fight through your market as a team.

One of the most important things to look for in finding your dragon is a common language. You need to find investors who can process your thoughts in the language that you think in. If all of your ideas, learnings, and plans need to be translated into a different language that your investor thinks in, you are not going to benefit from the full brilliance or value of that investor. Something will be lost in translation, and re-translation when they guide you in their framework and you need to input their guidance back into your own. Frictionless information flow between you and your investors (or advisors for that matter) is key to maximizing such a relationship.

If you are building a syndicate of investors, not every member of the syndicate needs to have this frictionless transmittance. Different investors can offer you help in various facets of your business, but your key investor, or the guy/girl who sits on your board, or maybe a non-board member but your closest strategic confidant, must be someone who speaks and thinks in the same language as you.