I loved Bijan Sabet’s (Spark) post today titled Patience & Persistence. In it, he talks about how OMGPOP’s new game Draw Something is blowing up after nearly four years of making some, but not a ton, of progress. He starts out strong:
“When you go to a tech meetup, tech party, or read tech headlines, it’s easy to get swept away into thinking things are soaring for a number of startups. Company xyz now has a zillion users, another company just went viral, overnight sensation, etc. It’s easy to fall in love with those headlines or worse, it’s easy to be distracted. The truth of the matter is that it hardly ever goes straight up and to the right.”
Go read the post to hear the story. This is very consistent with our view at Foundry Group that it often takes up to three years for a new company to figure out where the magic is going to be. As investors, we are very patient through those first three years, keeping the burn rate low but continuing to fund by ourselves if necessary as long as we believe in the entrepreneur. One of the reasons we love working with Bijan and his partners at Spark is because they share this point of view.
Remember – it can take a long time. Be patient. And persistent.
