Blogs

I caught a blog thread on Sunday, while waiting out the rain in Whistler, about getting entrepreneurs together with VCs for a day of skiing so they can pitch the VCs on the lift.  Some folks like Om Malik thinks it’s a great idea (me too) while Paul Kedrosky thinks:

…the thought of being trapped past the one-minute mark in a Whistler gondola with some random entrepreneur in full pitch mode is frightening. It would have me, for one, mulling maximum gondola-exit jump heights

Just the thought of it, ouch!  Even if it’s the _worst_ idea you’ve ever heard I wouldn’t find it that bad, after all you’d be in the Whistler gondola and skiing very shortly.  In my experience even the most obnoxious person can’t talk to you while you’re skiing, and there’s an expression that “a bad day on the slopes is still better than a good day in the office”;-)  Which is probably the case if you hear that many bad pitches.  Being born and raised on the west coast I don’t think I’m itching to ski out east anytime soon, but from what I hear the line ups are a lot longer back east, so being in Whistler is probably better.  In Paul’s defense he says any self respecting CEO wouldn’t be into this either, which is true likely.  I’d find it pretty annoying to have some useless VC type who has no idea about the business we’re in or technology ask me over and over again to predict to the penny how I’m going to scale to $50 million, who _exactly_ is going to acquire us in 2-3yrs at and at what multiple, 5.6x btw.  Normally those answers are so black and white…but my mom won’t let me ski with my crystal ball anymore;-)  But if you’re one of those VCs that can predict the future, then you should probably be able to ski enough that you’re better than 99.9% of hard working entrepreneurs and you can easily ditch them on the first run:P

I think the more important thing about this idea, is that it’s important to get to know people you’re going to consider a business relationship with and doing that in a higher pressure pitch is probably not ideal.  Skiing or some type of other non-business focused activity can be a great way to do this.  You could meet a bunch of smart and hard working entrepreneurs who you could work with, and as Simeon Simenov puts it engage with entrepreneurs in The Third Way.  Because as Simon puts it:

One of the great thing about good entrepreneurs and VCs is that they find ways to create new options when they don’t like the options presented to them.

Nitobi is private and self-funded but I’ve skied, biked or done other such activities with all of our Advisory Board members, a number of clients and many business associates.  I think it’s a great way to build a stronger business relationship whether it’s someone you’ve worked with for years or just met.  In fact I just went skiing with Duane, and through him met David Orchard who I hope to be able to work with in the future and skiing deep pow these guys makes it that much easier!  Just seems like a good way to get to know each other even if things don’t work out.

Where to Jump…

But of course if you have to jump, I’d recommend the Glacier Express on Blackcomb an jump off at the top of the Bite, it’s only about 10ft so you should be ok.  Or better yet Garbanzo on Whistler about 3/4 of the way up just as it flattens out (just at the pitch ends…haha), on a powder day you’ll get an awesome fall line powder run back to lift free of pitches.

If you want to hit the slopes, talk a bit of business and aren’t likely to jump out of a gondola, drop me a line:)

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