Ruthless With Your Time
An Underrated Founder Trait
Recently I was talking with a friend & co-investor in one of the best startups in my angel portfolio. We were admiring the startup’s remarkably consistent execution. My friend remarked about the high-performing CEO & co-founder:
“He is so ruthless with his time.”
This had the hallmark of a genius insight - I had never thought of this way of describing an exceptionally focused founder, but now it seemed obvious.
Great founders are remarkably devoted to achieving their goals. The challenge for an investor is that any founder can say they are intensely focused. But how does it manifest in the rare founder who truly possesses a maniacal devotion to their cause?
I don’t mean to suggest a founder must be ruthless with his or her time to be great. “Ruthless" is a strong word! But, reflecting on some of the best founders I have known, I can see that many of them do have this trait.
Of course, this can be tricky to assess for a VC. A founder is often in “sales mode" when talking to to an investor, so might be more generous with their time than usual. Perhaps they are typically ruthless with their time, but don’t show it to prospective investors.
On the other hand, founders who don’t hide that they are ruthless with their time can seem very arrogant. Who wants to invest in a jerk?
This reminds me of a wonderful anecdote told by Roelof Botha, the Sequoia VC & repeat Midas Lister, on a recent 20VC podcast:
“When I first joined Sequoia Don Valentine was still in our office. Don took me aside, probably in the first month, and he said ‘Roelof there is a two by two matrix of people we invest in. On the one axis, it’s not exceptional and exceptional. And the other axis, it’s easy to get along with and not easy to get along with. Your job today is to figure out in which quadrant we normally make money.'”
Valentine’s not-so-subtle message is that founders who are both exceptional and “not easy to get along with” will produce the biggest returns.
The legendary VC’s phrase “not easy to get along with” is artfully open to interpretation. My guess is that a founder who is exceptional and ruthless with their time can land precisely in Valentine’s winning quadrant.