Archive for September, 2011
This year has been one of pretty big changes for me on both the personal and professional front, which makes particularly apt the following New Years’ wishes forwarded to me by my brother Bob, and which I would like to forward to my readers and followers:
“The Hebrew word for year, ‘shanah,’ is based on the same root as ‘to change.’ The Jewish tradition recognizes that each new year affords us the opportunity to change. Thus, when we say to our friends and family, ‘l’shanah tova,’ which we usually translate as ‘May you have a good year’ what we are also saying, quite literally, is ‘May the changes you make in the coming year be for the good.’
What a wonderful and uplifting message. May each of us celebrate this year not only as a good year, but also as a year that we change, as individuals and as a community, for the better.”
I’ve been playing around with some lightweight CRM offerings and last night signed up for Worketc. And today I got an email from Dan, who introduced himself as “as your go-to guy while you’re getting started with WORKetc.”
Turns out, Dan is the founder of WORKetc. Dan goes on:
“I bet you are now wondering what the founder is doing on customer support? The reason is pretty simple. For a lot of software providers, customer support is an afterthought and usually outsourced to an offshore call centre. We have a different philosophy here. I genuinely love interacting with customers and spend at least an hour every morning reading every single interaction between our customers and our support team.And, as he describes, he loves interacting with customers and hearing what they want and need.”
He signs off with this: “Dan, Founder, Customer Support.” I love that.
So, the word leaked out yesterday. I was really touched by all the well wishes on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you all so much.
At dinner with some of my favorite entrepreneurs I had the following exchange with Narendra Rocherolle, who, if you don’t know, you should:
N: So Mike, why are you doing this new fund thing?
M: I really want to focus on super early stage stuff.
N: Yeah, but why?
M: Well, that is what I really love. When I get up in the morning, the thing that really charges me up is getting to hang with young, hungry and passionate entrepreneurs — batting ideas around, strategizing with them about building a business, and/or just hanging out over a beer and hearing what they are excited about.
N: Yeah, OK, we all know that, but why? Why do you get so excited about this stuff?
No one had really asked me that. Why do we love the things we do? We went around the table — Matt, why do you love music? Dave, why do you love the outdoors? And so forth.
Which made me realize we don’t often step back to examine why we have the motivations we do. Why do we have the likes and dislikes we do? Why are we passionate about the things we love?
Getting back to the question at hand: I had to think for a few minutes, but then I responded to Narendra that I think my passion for the super early stage lies in the fact that I am getting to back entrepreneurs’ dreams. Special entrepreneurs always have a dream — not just the product they are building, but what it is they ultimately will build, the company, the culture, the organization; how they are going to impact peoples’ lives; how they are going to change the world. Talented people who are inspired by a dream are, themselves, inspiring. And getting to help them achieve their dreams is inspiring. And that is why I love what I do.
I look forward to backing many more dreams, and helping (some of) them becoming realities.
Effective today, I will be leaving Polaris Venture Partners, and setting out to launch a new seed firm.
While I am excited by the prospect of building something new, it is difficult to leave the partnership I have been part of for 12 years. I feel lucky to have had the chance to learn the venture business from two of the industry’s finest practitioners, and to have worked with a remarkable group of partners. But over the past few years I have grown a passion for working with young entrepreneurs at the very earliest stage of conceiving and launching a venture. I have certainly had the chance to do that at Polaris, whether it be through Dogpatch Labs or making seed investments, but now I’ve decided I want to make this my exclusive focus.
My Polaris partners and I have both come to the conclusion that pursuing this focus is best done in a vehicle other than Polaris funds. While Polaris will certainly continue to dedicate a significant portion of its funds to seed investing through Dogpatch Labs, and other similar efforts, I want to focus exclusively on super-early seed stage investments. Polaris’s diversified strategy has been and will continue to be an incredibly successful formula, but my partners and I have come to realize that a dedicated seed fund is the best platform from which to pursue my passion for the super early stage.
I am deeply gratified that Polaris is supporting the formation of my new venture, and look forward to what I hope will be numerous opportunities to co-invest with my Polaris partners
