Caring about your mission

One of my favorite clients just publicly posted that he left his executive role at a company he’s been at for over ten years. He’s a great person and I’ve gotten to know him well over the last 5 years. We helped with an exercise of his company’s options and the company went through an acquisition that unfortunately was not what was expected.

We have no regrets with our decision or thesis there. It was a great company with an awesome team that hit a rough patch at the wrong time. If I could go back, I would’ve done the same thing.

Despite his equity not working out, he wrote a heartfelt message to his team on the day he officially left. This paragraph really resonated with me:

If I can leave you with one last piece of advice, it’s this: take great care—of each other, our members, and our partners. Care about their needs. Care about listening first. Care about discovering what's right, not who is right. Care about helping. Care about creating value. Care deeply for your part. Care deeper about the whole.

Startups are hard. Most people pour their heart and lives into building their companies. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that your company’s equity will work out. However, increasing your equity value is just one piece of the puzzle to why we do this.

These startups build great products that can help millions of people. It’s a good reminder that we shouldn’t just be in it for the equity value, but also for the mission. Otherwise, none of this hard work is worth it.