Long Term

What will you build in 10 years ?

A month ago I was in Japan. I liked it very much and while traveling the country, I remembered a book that Marc Menase offered a few years ago… The little book of Ikigai. Among other things, it describes the art of mastering repetition with the same commitment and passion every single day, with patience, abstraction, and dedication. It’s humbling.

It made me think…People are constantly on their screens, buying things instantly, having anything delivered to their door in a snap, watching people who showcase their perfect life or formula for immediate success…

And this spreads everywhere, including among entrepreneurs, employees, and investors. It seems like people are more and more entitled. I’m shocked at how much people demand things and reject struggle like they didn’t have to earn their position or learn to explore their boundaries. For anyone playing video games, they should understand it, no one enjoys victory if the battle was too easy. Life is the same, it’s the extra mile, the additional effort, and the last push that makes you proud of your achievements. And as for the results or the rewards, one must be patient even though your Twitter or Instagram feed suggests otherwise, that everything is an overnight success and that you just have to follow a bunch of threads to immediately become an AI Wizard, a Real Estate King or a Stock Picking Expert.

In Venture Capital, we are contributing to this madness. We invest in many deals. Then we hide the least performing ones, bury super deep the lost ones, and showcase the very best like they were the only child. And even better, they all look like an overnight success. We are so anchored in that narrative despite our so-called long-term commitment that we tend to push entrepreneurs too far too fast. We sometimes give up on some of them before they could even pivot or fight. I’ve seen investors ignore entrepreneurs because they didn’t believe in them anymore and show up at the party, calling them friends when the company was sold for several billion in cash just a few years after. And if that wasn’t enough, we are also competing in deals where information is scarce, timing is tight, terms are high. Those same deals and entrepreneurs to whom we’re committing for the next ten years. Insanity.

This is where madness hits. Entrepreneurs who are here to build companies are now entangled in this alienation where they must deal, hire, build, sell, pivot, fire, expand, raise fast fast fast fast… The intentionality is gone. I wish we were demanding different attributes from entrepreneurs, like ethics, rhythm, and alignment.

Ethics is demonstrated in commitment, work, and relationships, it’s how much you are dedicated to making the right effort and doing the right things toward your work and the people you engage with.

Rhythm means that even though you are not in a position to grow faster sometimes, all the elements in place in your company are moving and evolving fast. Inertia is asphyxia.

When we back companies, we look for founder-market fit and we also define the kind of ambition we’re after, together. But sometimes, the trajectory of the company can’t match those expectations and instead of pushing stupidly and hitting the wall, we prefer to let the founders re-align themselves with that new direction if that’s what they want and proceed forward. Because to us, it’s one company among many others, but not to them.

We’re at the beginning of the journey with many of the entrepreneurs we have backed, like Firmin at Payfit, Jean-Charles at Alan, or Phil at DICE. Sometimes it’s even a new chapter after almost a decade like Eiso at Poolside, Pierre-Antoine at Ibanfirst, or Antoine at Amo. And those founders remind me every day why I do what I do. I wish to develop many more long-term relationships with founders who will build meaningful companies in the decade to come.

As Bill Gates once said: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.”

Stay impatient in action, and patient (even tolerant) with the results :)