5步骤充分利用投资者的援助

The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, holds true in the VC world: More than 80 percent of our returns come from 20 percent or fewer of our bets. You'd think I spend the majority of my time assisting that 20 percent, but I don't. I spend most of my time with the 80 percent -- our portfolio companies that'll return little to nothing. And I'm not alone.

为什么?这是工作。当事情进展不错,there's little motivation to interfere. But when a company is underperforming, we do damage control. And there's another reason we need to devote our energy to flailing startups: I need to show my investors that we're pursuing every option before giving up on their money. Sure, we'd probably impact returns much more by turning our attention to the winners rather than trying to save losers. Everyone knows this -- but somehow we always ignore this discipline. Like the 'treps we support, we never give up.