Yesterday while driving to our Swiss office I listened to this podcast on Stanford eCorner. I didn’t know Matthew before. Brilliant entrepreneur and engineer. Besides talking about his entrepreneurial adventures, Matthew brings up about a few points and key lessons that only now I understand, unfortunately.
- Why you should raise VC money at the very beginning of your journey. Not 100% in agreement with raising VC money at the beginning (bootstrapping is the way!) but I see his point about dilution and it’s smart.
- On Silicon Valley’s big names in your board/network. They will be not so powerful while you focus on building a business. Sometimes they are just a big distraction. I understood this way too late and even today I struggle communicating this to other people.
- Building companies and being a founder/CEO, a lonely job where taking care of your mental health is 99% of the game. Very true and sad.