I wrote a blog about Investor vs. Investor hating a couple of months ago. It shed light on how much shit talking goes behind the scenes in the capital-allocating world. To antithesis of this is Investors Helping Investors, which I will discuss as a valuable tool if used correctly.
To put a framework around this seemingly simple concept of asking for help, let me tell you something that is super evident- investing is a big ego game. Everyone thinks they are more intelligent than everyone else. The reason for this, in my opinion, is because there are 1,000 ways to make and lose money in early-stage investing, and everyone is subjected to their own experience bias.
When an investor can go to another and say – I see this company is growing, but I don’t know why, nor do I know how to think about the long-term value of this type of company, I get a firehose of information. I even went to investors who have put capital into my target companies’ competitors to get info. I speak candidly about a company that I am looking at. The only information I give them is that they are growing. They then open their kimono and tell me an obscene amount of data on their company.
It is incredible. All you have to do is identify your lack of knowledge of something and request help. A little humility on a subject can go a long way.
