What running a marathon taught me about venture capital

As you may well guess, this is gonna be a list based story. We’ve all seen so many of them but can you imagine this story in a different format? Like most of the stories I end up writing (and sometimes rewriting), this one came to me during a run.

Running and other endurance sports have been a large part of my life during the last 15 years. It started by accident when a friend registered us to a 5k run in 2006, expanded over the years to running a full marathon and from there it was a slippery slope all the way to doing triathlons and even a full IronMan. Running can be something you do with friends, it can be a time for you to enjoy some music, listen to a podcast or just be with yourself. I like all versions of it, especially the long slow distance runs (named LSD for some reason). I think my favorite runs are those around 2 hours with no specific speed or distance goal. So here’s what running taught me and how I apply it to investing in startups.

1. S**t happens— Not all runs work out the way you thought they would. Some of them go according to plan while others simply refuse to stick to it. Accepting this fact, allows you to learn from your bad runs and hopefully get better by it. Just like in running, some of your investments will fail. Instead of obsessing over them, figure out what went wrong and extract new insights that will help you down the road.
2. Race your own race — The night before my first marathon, I asked a friend who is a strong runner for a last tip pre-race. His answer was that I should beware the fat lady. “Fat lady? What fat lady are you talking about?” I asked as he explained that at some part of the marathon, someone who does not look like they should be running faster than me (e.g fat lady) will do just that. His advice was to ignore that person and stick to my own race plan. It’s not about beating that other person but about achieving your own personal goals. When investing, make sure you make a decision based on your investment thesis and not just because other people are influencing you.
3. Be methodical — After many years of running, I finally reached the point where I am able to prepare for races methodically. It means figuring out your race pace by the different parts of the race, but also understanding your nutrition, planning for the weather, how to handle issues you tackle across the race and even logistics like how to get to/from a race. A good planning reduces stress, minimizes surprises and often leads to far better results. Taking this concept to investing in startups, I would suggest figuring out a well thought of investment thesis, building a process for evaluating potential investment candidates and also planning your follow-on investment strategy. Doing this will probably help you invest smarter, just remember that this is an iterative process that needs to be constantly re-examined.
4. Save some energy for the last part of the race — Running a marathon takes for us mere mortals around 4 hours (but the world record stands around 2 hours!). If you start out strong, you might end up running out of energy long before you see the coveted finish line. That’s why a veteran runner will plan his efforts to have some juice in the tank until the last few miles of the race. It also helps get better smiling pictures at the finish line. When investing, your energy is actually your available capital. You don’t want to run out of it, just before your companies need an infusion of cash to reach a significant milestone. Save a certain percentage of your available funds to either a rainy day or a very shiny one where you want to keep your pro-rata of a golden company.
5. We are part of a community — Running is a community. You can run anywhere in the world and other runners will say hello or nod their head. While not an exclusive club, running is a club where people choose to participate in. Just by running, you are becoming a member and can share your stories, get advice and of course offer some yourself. In the startup ecosystem, partnerships form over time and you get to meet the same people you cooperated in one venture on another one. Don’t consider yourself as a stand alone entity but as active and valuable part of this community.
6. Respect the distance — In the same way that new runners can’t be expected to run a full marathon during their first few years, new investors aren’t expected to invest in later stages or in multi-million dollar rounds. Take your time, don’t be afraid to take a smaller portion of an investment, letting others take the lead. There will come a time when you will feel ready to increase your stakes.

Do you have additional ideas of how running marathons is related to investing? Feel free to reach out to me here