What Is The Advice You Never Hear But Should Hear?

I was thinking about my Dad this morning, and I was thinking about something he told me when I was raising our first round of funding. I was going on and on, as if I knew everything about startups and VCs, and I was telling my Dad that we absolutely, positively had to raise money from “Tier 1” VCs.

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My Dad started laughing and shaking his head. I was starting to get pissed.

He looked at me and said, “Brett, everyone’s money is green.”

The first piece of advice you never hear: Your goal isn’t to raise money from Tier 1 VCs, your goal is to just raise the money.

“You don’t get it, Dad,” I said rather loudly. I felt like we were going to get into one of our yelling matches. “Tier 1 VCs will add so much more value…”

My Dad cut me off mid sentence, and he calmly repeated himself, “Brett, everyone’s money is green.”

Now, my Dad wasn’t just pontificating without a reference point. He had started two companies, so he knew what raising money was all about.

However, I was in no mood to listen to my Dad tell me my theory of venture capital was wrong. So, I pushed back. “You just don’t get it,” I said.