Just Say No (Nicely)

With the No Harm, No Foul meetings in full swing for 2008,I am in a position of saying no quite often. The one thing I've found in the seven years of doing this gig is that saying no, while not particularly the fun part of the job, is sometimes just as important as the yes.

Consider this no from last week:

"Sorry for the delay in responding. Thank you for coming by JLA to let me see what you are up to. I was impressed with you and your presentation. I did speak to my partners about this during our Partners Meeting and we are going to pass. I think you are a very good CEO. Where I got hung up was on the business focus as we discussed. I’m not at all suggesting I’m right, just being transparent [....]. It’s cool, interesting, but it has the issues we talked about.

Again, thanks for thinking of JLA. Hopefully, I’ll be wrong and you’ll get filthy rich.

>R<"

The company was interesting and the CEO was pretty sharp. We had a difference of opinion on what the execution and focus should be. I said, here is what would excite me as what you are doing, today, doesn't do it for me. The email above didn't re-hash the conversation rather it was relating the why back to the meeting.

The key points I want to make here are these:

1. The CEO had a plan and was looking for money to support that plan. I wasn't it, for sure, we because I didn't buy into the plan.
2. I could be wrong and really the decision point belonged to management and not some suit (aka me).
3. This happened within days without the 'let's continue the dialog' nonsense and with some mutual respect all around. I got a nice note back.
4. I could be wrong. I'm a user group of one. It's not my area of expertise. I play with cards I'm dealt.
5. We stayed away from "change to this and I'll fund you nonsense" as that is a bad strategy for both sides.
   

Venture Capital types often times make the ugly mistake of trying to be serious know it alls. Some would call it an over abundance of arrogance. You, as management, need to get data points/feedback and then drive the bus. I am not supposed to be driving the bus. I was impressed with this guy's ability to have a very engaging conversation with me while at the same time staying on message showing a true belief in his ideas, the strategy, execution, etc. In the end, our firm decided to pass but we gave our detailed feedback (not it the email above, I know) which hopefully was useful. The no was 'fast' and the CEO was invited to come by anytime, etc.

The no part of this job can be helpful if we, as VCs, take the time to cough up some meat around the no which might actually be useful.

[side/random note: This blog post is coming to you via Firefox on my iMAC using the scribefire plug-in. Pretty cool, actually, but how on earth do MAC people type/compose text without the use of the home/end keys taking you to the end/beginning of a sentence. Painful.]

Comments

[Richard]

Try cmd-arrow to go to the beginning/end of the current line, or option-arrow to move to the next/last word. No idea about sentences I'm afraid.

The Apple guidelines for keyboard shortcuts are here:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGKeyboardShortcuts/chapter_950_section_1.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40002725-CHDIGFBH

[Rick Segal]

Richard,
Whoo hooo! Thank you! I found the keys to my happiness. NOW I can buy my MAC Laptop and work it.

[J. Shirley]

Amusingly the cmd-arrow keys were my first gripe with OS X. I bought an iMac when the G5s first came out,

I've been holding out for a few things before getting a mac laptop, but I have been whittled down. I'm picking up a MBP soon.

With Leopard Spaces, the multi-touch, better battery life it is a no-brainer.

And on topic,
Rick, your transparency should be an inspiration to all who read your entries; it isn't isolated to just VC meetings but in many other aspects of life and business.

Thanks,
-J

[Saul Lieberman]

VERY nice of you to take the time to put the "No" in a rational context. Good business sense too.

[Jim Tanner]

Nice article. I wish some of the VCs we pitched told us no that quickly and clearly.

Read this about Mac key bindings:
http://www.starryhope.com/tech/apple/2006/keyfixer/

Also, Ctrl-a and Ctrl-e will move you to the beginning and end of the current line, respectively.

Jim