Shooting your shot
A personal example inspired by a podcast I listened to last week.
I recently listened to the 20vc podcast with Delian, who is one of the top up and coming VCs in the world, as well as the founder of Varda, which has raised $150M to build a space manufacturing company. Delian talked about how, not long after he completed an internship at Square as an 18 year old, he reached out to Rabois, who was the COO at the time, and is today one of the top established VCs in the world, as well as the founder of unicorns Opendoor and OpenStore, and an early executive at many incredible companies including PayPal and, of course, Square. His outreach turned into monthly meetings, and eventually his big break via entry to Founders Fund, one of the most storied VCs of our time, founded by Peter Thiel.
In my own life, I’ve often found these shots to be incredibly worthwhile. Two that come to mind — one was when I reached out to Mike Moritz of Sequoia when I had a few free months prior to starting at McKinsey to see if he’d let me work for him for free. That was a missed shot, but I still thought it was incredible that he, still one of the most storied VCs of our time, responded.
Another one that comes to mind is from 2018. After a stint at McKinsey and while exploring entrepreneurial pursuits, I had an idea for a food topper robot. I’d seen Ed Rensi, former fry cook turned McDonald’s CEO, talk about the potential of robots in restaurants, so I reached out on LinkedIn. Thus began a long email exchange, and eventually an agreement to spend a day whiteboarding in a conference room near his home in Sarasota, Florida.
Three important things to note :
1. Majority of folks won't engage. It is a funnel. So shoot lots of shots. But there’s limited downside when they don’t, and ample upside when they do.
2. Recognize that world is small. Contrary to above, there’s a very real chance you’ll find yourself connecting with said person in future. Don’t act or say anything you’ll regret later!
3. Works best when you're young. If you're young, you may not realize that one of your superpowers is that people have unreasonable willingness to speak to you.
I ultimately concluded price of the robotic arms (UR) were still too expensive to make economics work, but the exchange was super informative and a ton of fun for me, and I think Ed enjoyed it too.
My first boss out of school was a very succesful entrepreneur who coached me : “you don’t ask, you don’t get”. So shoot your shot!
What's a time you shot yours?