Lessons

• Economics and control are the only things that matter within a term sheet. Everything else is gravy.

• Networks of trust are rooted in relationships based on a common set of norms and values that bind a group of people together. Successful outcomes in startups and venture investing require teamwork that is grounded in this trust along with a shared sense of purpose.

• Flying under the radar > always being in the spotlight. Focus is a competitive advantage for founders, and focus is hard to come by when you are the center of attention.

• Markets reward growth until they don’t. Then they reward profitability. The trick is to be in a position to make the switch when you need to.

• You don’t know anything until you’ve lived through a downturn. Scars create wisdom.

• Emotions are the enemy of good decision-making. The best investors are able to remove the emotion completely from the decision.

• Should you fire employees that are high on culture, low on competence? No – you should find them a different role that they are better suited for.

• The better you mentors, the better your career options. Mentors help you see around blindspots, and they level with you when you’re being irrational. Techstars is built around the mentor-support model, and their portfolio companies are able to leverage the collective knowledge of all of the mentors within the program.

• Healthy obsession is required. All of the entrepreneurs you admire have been maniacal about building their business. You don’t need to necessarily match this level of obsession, but you need a healthy version of it if you want to succeed.

• Fund size consistency matters. All of Foundry Group’s funds have been the same size. Feld found that growing like crazy as a fund meant that more time would go towards training inexperienced entrepreneurs and less time towards working closely with the more experienced ones.