Entrepreneur != Angel Investor
If you are a little bit successful as a founder, folks assume you are on a path to angel investing (hell, some entrepreneurs even run mini-funds). I’ve never been a fan of this. And it is not that it wouldn’t be fun, but bringing any new venture to life (as you all know) is so hard, or near impossible actually, that any outside distraction you can remove directly increases the probability of success. I don’t think this is a contrarian viewpoint.
Having said that, I absolutely LOVE to do ad hoc chats with other smart entrepreneurs and do that all the time. And I am easily dazzled when I hear they never angel invest, never sit on boards, never do official advisory work, etc. But only do one thing; Their current venture!
I certainly try to adhere to that philosophy myself, and it served me well in the past. I like my teams to operate in a similar spirit.
* If you want to be an Angel, which is an awesome function, do it with all of your heart — and focus on being the best at this very thing.
