I’m thankful for our investors (and an above-and-beyond story)
Startup CEO’s can spend a lot of time privately sharing investor horror stories. But we also trade the good guy tales too.
In that vein, I was recently swapping “great backer” stories with another entrepreneur. He’d been delighted when one of his investors flew him in a private plane to the Nantucket Conference. Anything that can reduce road warrior wear and tear is better than chocolates or champagne. (I’d had a similar investor “gift” of a jet taxi ride, and also loved it.)
One of our investors actually topped my private plane ride experience two days ago when he personally gave me a few more productive hours at my desk. How? I was whining to him about my long to-do list for the short Thanksgiving week. He pushed me to think about what I could “outsource.” And then he became investor-of-the-year by actually offering to make the five pie crusts I had to get done! He did it. The pies came out great. And I got a lot more work done that day.
So, from plane rides to pie crusts, there is no end to what a committed investor can contribute to a start-up.
I’d love to hear what other great investors have done for their portfolio companies.
Jules Pieri 
4 Responses to “I’m thankful for our investors (and an above-and-beyond story)”
I blog about startups and this is the first time I’ve read a blog by a CEO of one(maybe because am still a new blogger). Investor horror stories sound terrible and interesting all at once. Did you find it challenging to start Daily Grommet?
Oh where to begin….it is very challenging still! I’ve shared some of the hard stuff along the way in this blog. Just what I can bear. 🙂 But I’ve done other hard things: send myself to boarding school as a young teenager, move my family to Ireland with no job or connections, work in Paris right out of college, raise three sons. I just remember all that stuff and it helps put “hard” in context.
Most obvious thing is that you’re one tough lady. All those things really put ‘hard’ in context. Every startup is a challenge no matter where you are but its the same as raising a kid. I’d complain that coming from Kenya, there isn’t enough talent to go round and VCs are almost impossible to find(if they even exist) but to be successful I guess you just have to be focused on doing your thing.
Question I’d like to ask is what’s the next level for daily grommet?
[…] I'm thankful for our investors (and an above-and-beyond story … (I'd had a similar investor “gift” of a jet taxi ride, and also loved it.) One of our investors actually topped my private plane ride experience two days ago when he personally gave me a few more productive hours at my desk. How . […]