Last week, Silicon Valley Bankthe most popular bank in the technology industry, collapsed overnight. After a sudden drop in the stock price, thousands of depositors lost confidence in SVB’s liquidity and tried to withdraw more than $40 dollars within a few hours. I am one of them, like most of me FUNDS portfolio CEOs.
The 48 hours that followed were intense. Everyone’s bank accounts were frozen. The possible downstream consequences exist for individuals, companies, funds, and the entire industry.
As a venture capitalist with all my capital and a third of my portfolio exposed to the crisis, it’s hard to describe what the experience was like. In the midst of all the uncertainty, I live in two simultaneous realities. A part of me is “in it,” focused on what I can control, taking every possible step to protect the fund, while simultaneously feeding my children, keeping my team calm, updating the my investors, and support my portfolio and community. The other part of my concern is worrying us all and asking my husband for forgiveness for putting our family through this for so long.
“I literally ran into the bank in downtown Seattle,” said Grin Lord, the portfolio company’s CEO mPathic. “It’s sad and surreal to watch branch employees realize they may soon be out of a job, while trying to fax requests for checks to the cashier. It dawned on me that I was in for a moment that I will remember forever.” Lord’s attempt to get his money was unsuccessful that night. By Friday morning, federal regulators had taken control of the bank. While the FDIC has promised to make insured funds available to depositors, it is unclear how much will be available and when.
Then on Sunday afternoon, with 346-words press release, the worst crisis is over, it seems. It’s like being hit by a truck, brushing it, and limping. “I feel like as a startup CEO you just learn to keep going no matter what,” Clara Siegel, the CEO of another portfolio company, who spent the entire week in crisis mode, told me. “Is it weird that I feel “normal”? Another CEO, Melinda Haughey, asked. “We’re used to having curve balls thrown at us. Doers just have to wake up the next day and go back to work.
Type 3 is fun
My husband is a climber. He always comes back, smelly and happy, full of endorphins and a new collection of bruises. When I asked what happened, he said, “I’m fine. A bit of type 2 fun. “
This is how I learned about the fun scalea more useful way to rank activities by their fun-to-suffering ratio.
The scale starts with type 1 entertainment: easy, recognizable, fun-while-it-happens entertainment. It’s your favorite movie, brunch with good friends, or delicious ice cream on a hot day. This is the kind of fun that will fill your tank. Throw in a little challenge and you have type 2 fun–or as I like to think of it, reminiscing fun. A tough workout, trying to write your first novel, camping when it’s cold and wet.
At the other end of the scale is type 3 fun. Type 3 is actively miserable, “what am I thinking,” “someone talk to me if I want to try it again,” not fun at all. If type 2 is a hard workout, type 3 is an Ironman. This is childbirth (with or without an epidural). That old TV show Fear Factor, where the contestants must eat a live scorpion. It is the most difficult and painful challenge that the disease imposes on itself when you go through it but becomes a badge of honor when it is over. The harder the challenge, the stronger it will make you.
In my experience, those who suffer the most from repetition and enjoy type 3 entertainment make for the best traders. There is a masochism in starting and scaling a company that favors founders who may delay gratification. and going through incredible hardships in the process. The best entrepreneurs I know will face a hundred insurmountable obstacles—and come back for the 101st—because they actively believe that given enough time and opportunity, they will emerge victorious. .
The real harm of addiction is adversity
Entrepreneurship is hard, sometimes ridiculous – and the better you are at type 3 fun, the better your odds of eventual success. But the same loyalty that drives entrepreneurs to keep going can also leave you reeling, unable to process difficult experiences.
In extremes, this great strength has become a great weakness. It’s no small part of why so many founders struggle, and why it’s so critical that entrepreneurs and their investors prioritize mental health and well-being. Especially in times like these.
These days, a new generation of entrepreneurs is facing theirs first VC winterand a new generation of VCs faced their first LP count–and that was all before the most important bank in the tech industry collapsed before our eyes.
The journeys that were difficult a year ago are more than exhausting today, and with all the economic uncertainty, it’s unlikely that things will get any easier. But while the bubble market of the last five years favored the best connected founders who were also the best at pitching, this new moment will favor a new type of entrepreneur. The grittiest. Those with a purpose. Those who rise again and again, who overcome a catastrophic crisis, who are eager to pursue their dream and are determined to succeed will come hell or high water, whether this start, the next, or the next.
I’ve started two companies, raised VC funding, had two kids, and quit my pack a day smoking habit cold turkey. In other words, I’m no stranger to self-pity. When I find myself going through incredibly difficult moments, I think about the fun dimension, and remind myself that type 3 fun is, in fact, fun, even if not in the moment.
As with anything in life, the key is balance: Type 1 fun is healing. Type 2 entertainment gives me energy. And type 3 fun, no matter how difficult it is, is where I found my purpose.
Not easy. It’s not glamorous. It’s an arduous, often thankless slog. But as long as I feel it’s worth my single life, I won’t take it any other way. So I know that one day, I will look back on this horrible weekend and remember it as epic. After all, when was the last time you were proud of doing something easy?
Leslie Feinzaig is the founder and managing director of Graham & Walker Venture Fund.
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