I Finally Understand What Our First Investor Meant When He Said This After Our Meetings

When you’re building a startup there are a million things that need to get done.

Because of that, it can be easy to convince yourself you’re doing good work when in reality, you’re not.

When I was a first-time founder, we had an angel investor that invested close to $200k into our company. He was a former C-suite exec at Renren and a total boss.

As the person responsible for investor relations, I took meetings with him very seriously. I’d often spend hours preparing reports and documents to present.

He’d challenge us in our direction and push us to strive for bigger targets. The meetings always felt like a mental workout. Challenging and tough, but totally useful.

At the end of every meeting, he’d say:

“Okay, it’s time for you guys to go and do some real work now.”

At the time, I never fully understood what he meant.

”Aren’t meetings like this the ‘real work’?” I would ask myself.

It took me some time to truly understand what he meant by saying this.

He meant that in every company, there is important work and there is busy work.

Investor meetings might feel important, but in reality, they’re not going to push the needle.

Real work is driving revenue, growing the business, and hiring talent.

Pushing forward.

The difference between great founders and mediocre ones is that great founders can decipher what’s important from what is not.

They focus on the ‘real work’ and know the difference.

If you’re a first-time founder, take a moment to consider if the work you’re doing is ‘real work’.

Are you loading your calendar with things you like doing? Or is it full of things that are actually important?