Reputation Matters

Reputation matters. You know that and so do I. But it’s easy to forget that you’re either building or destroying that reputation in every interaction you have. Not to mention widespread reputation travels in our ridiculously connected world.

I was reminded (again) of this today from an exchange on our CEO email list (which includes about 75 CEOs of Foundry portfolio companies). The email read:

To: FoundryExec
From: [CEO of Foundry portfolio company}
Subject: Have you done business with anyone on this list

I’m on my way back from [an] investor conference where we met a bunch of VC & Private Equity guys.

The event was really useful. Not only did I discover a whole bunch of folks wanted to speak with us about investing, but I feel like I’ve been through an intensive two day course on Series B/C financings. Plus, it was useful to network with a bunch of CEOs and I think we made a few sales in the process 🙂

If any of you have ever had any dealings with the firms and/or individuals below I’d appreciate your feedback/tips.

[this was followed by a list of 20 or so firms and individuals]

The response was close to instantaneous – probably 20 messages exchanged in the course of an hour or so listing out people’s experience with various firms. Responses ranged from positive: “Good guys, and super smart.  Happy to take meetings.” and “He was nice, quick to provide feedback, clearly smart.”; to practical: “They want $5m run rate before investing” and ” Very good investors but super picky. Min check size $25M”; to negative: “The most negative experience I’ve had with a VC. …the partner was totally disengaged, dismissive, and rude.” and “Generic VC.  Another friend has him as main investor and every board meeting is “Why can’t you grow faster.”; and “He came late to the meeting. Came off as arrogant and bored”

There were tons of other comments, but you get the drift. The point is that people talk (in this case the topic was VCs but you could imagine the same thread on larger technology company partnerships or the best tools for managing metrics across your business, etc.). And while there are always two sides to a story (and certainly everyone can have an off day) it’s important to remember that with every interaction you’re either building or harming your reputation. I forget this plenty. And this morning was a reminder of why I shouldn’t…