I usually take a half hour or so for a 2 mile swift walk in the afternoon when I have time for a quick break.  Half an hour is good to clear my head & get me back on track for a few hours until I spend a little time with my wife in the evening.

Today I was thinking about the typical struggle that occasionally occurs between an early stage entrepreneur and a venture capitalist… or at least people who would identify themselves more with one than the other.  Specifically, I thought about a few interactions with a variety of folks who I consider to be my closest friends… some in Seattle, some in the Valley, some in Austin.

Everything I've experienced as a 4-time early stage entrepreneur can be explained by the following grand generalization:

Entrepreneurs will help you before you've succeeded.  Venture capitalists will help you once your success becomes a lot more certain.

Now I fully admit that is a generalization.  And it isn't a value judgment either — this has a lot more to do with the roles each side play.  I think it's a lot riskier to a typical person focusing on a career in venture capitalist to associate with failure.  It's a badge of honor for an entrepreneur.

But the fact remains that entrepreneurs I know have been incredibly helpful to me over the last few months, and something happens almost every day to reinforce that thought.  People on the VC side have been a lot more wary and, in general, a lot less constructive.  The entrepreneur attitude is "how can we do this" and the VC attitude is (and I'm paraphrasing here) "I don't care what you're telling me — this just simply can't work."

I would caveat this thought by saying that the VC-types I've spoken with who have a startup or two in their background are *much* more balanced and far more helpful than their colleagues without a startup background.

Just my two cents on a Wednesday.  Back to work.