Missed opportunities, sour grapes…
A few days ago, I did my good deed* of the day by introducing a start-up to a potential customer of theirs.
Nothing unusual about it except that the start-up was not one of our portfolio companies (and neither was I a shareholder or a beneficiary in them).
I am not usually this altruistic 
… but this was a special company.
I was first introduced to them more than three years ago…and at one point we came very close to doing a “deal”. Although we ended up walking away (for reasons of valuation and some other concerns), I continue to remain excited by the opportunity that their technology offers and I am reasonably confident that - with a little bit of fair wind – this could be a great European success story…
Now – as I said before – we actually ended up not doing the deal…so on the face of it, there is little reason to stay engaged and even less to actively help them.
In the larger scheme of things though:
- The world is a small place (and the VC community even more so)
- Life is too short to complain about sour grapes and
- What goes around, does come around (including good deeds and great ideas)…
So nurture your relationships carefully - good friends and great entrepreneurs are hard to find (and harder to maintain).
For more on good deeds (or good turns, to be precise) read this. I was a Boy Scout once – old habits die hard!
* Scout logo courtesy: http://pinetreeweb.com/wosm-india.jpg
