Winning Is Selfless

I remember when I got into a top accelerator in 2019, there was a large part of me that wanted to get a win so we could help them be successful. To summarize the situation, our company started the accelerator in a strong position, but as time passed through the program, the business struggled due to some of my decisions. As things got harder, my focus subconsciously shifted from wanting to make my company successful to wanting to make the accelerator successful. I was so grateful they bet on me, and I wanted to help them in return. I wanted to throw events for them in AZ. I wanted to help them out with content. And I just wanted to do anything I could to see them be seen as a #1 firm. It was at this moment, at least mentally, I’m sure their whole team wrote my company off as a zero.

It took me several years after this to realize what happened during this span of time. That company eventually died for various reasons, and soon after, I decided I wanted to help “outsiders” figure out the VC game and raise capital. This culminated in a company I started called Seedscout. As I started to work with founders, I noticed something strangely familiar. Many founders we worked with alluded to really wanting to get a win for Seedscout, helping us out while we helped them at the same time.

The way this came to light was that founders often told me during the sales process that they thought they could be the company that puts Seedscout in the spotlight. Like what Uber did for Jason, they thought they could be that for us. Another example is some founders consistently wanted to refer companies to us (which I highly appreciate), growing revenue for us & thinking those companies would also benefit from Seedscout. It was founders wanting to pay it forward. And again, the sentiment was very much appreciated.

That said, as a generalization, the founders in this bucket rarely had the strongest company performance. The ones who used Seedscout best got in, focused on getting their ROI, and got out. They did it for themselves, and solely for themselves. There was no paying it forward. There was no feeling like we could win in their wake. Sure, they may have wanted Seedscout to win as an high level concept, but their actions showed they were much more focused on getting their company to a W.

This may come off as an obvious post so far, but I was in this exact same bucket in 2019 during that accelerator. I THOUGHT I wanted to win. I thought I had the right head on my shoulders to weather the storms we were dealing with. But at the same time, when the company was struggling, I was figuring out how I could pay it forward to the accelerator that backed us. I wanted them to get value from this relationship too. But if I truly understood the dynamics, I would have tripled down on my company because the only way to pay it forward to this program was to get a solid exit for them. But because maybe deep down I didn’t think that would happen, I was figuring out other ways to make betting on me “worth it.” And in that process, I’m sure I lost even more of their confidence.

With Seedscout, I want to win for me. I want to win to make my struggles worth it. And most importantly, I still think we are building something industry-defining for the venture class, and I candidly just want to see what happens if I keep going. Are these healthy reasons to win? I don’t know. Maybe in 10 years, I’ll write a post about why these exact reasons for wanting to win were my downfall. But right now, these are personal tools that I use to keep the train moving. Because if I win for me, everyone else who has a stake in the company wins with me. I need to be selfish to be charitable. And I think my investors want that for me too. If I am grateful for my investors and advisors and former employees, the only way to make the financial and time commitment to Seedscout worth it is to simply win.

2019 Mat may see that as selfish. You may see it as selfish too. Yet 2019 Mat lost all his investors’ money, and 2024 Mat is still going, with the future yet to be written. So who is the selfish one here?