We are very lucky to have Vulcan and Foundry Group and more specifically Steve Hall and Brad Feld as our investors.  We had a board meeting yesterday and I was reminded how valuable they are in so many ways.  These guys are awesome and I think other VCs should strive to be like them and startups should seek the kinds of help and engagement we get from them.  Specifically;

- Be a product manager - early stage companies need a lot of help in developing, refining, expanding, focusing… the product.  Both Brad and Steve are active users of Gist and give us regular, constructive and specific product feedback.  Preceding our board meeting, I got a long and detailed email from Steve talking about features he felt should be in, improved and even removed from the product and I will never forget an email from Brad on Christmas morning in 2008 with 2-3 suggestions on how to make Gist better, 6 months before he invested.   Ask your VCs for regular (at least every other week) product feedback with real and specific descriptions of what works, what is broken and what is valuable.

- Blend strategic with tactical – A friend of mine said running a startup as like driving a race car through a set of cones, you need to try and make tight turns around each cone (very short term focus) and at the same time you need to be scanning medium (next 2 turns) and all the way down the track (long term vision), in very quick, alternating succession.  Brad and Steve are very good about helping us with the “what do we want to be when we grow up” and “what is the massive opportunity” as well as really helping us to decide how to take the immediate next turn.  Ask your VC’s to help you make some of the very tactical, short term decisions too, not just the big, long term ones.

- Go to the whiteboard – All too often we verbally pontificate on what it all could be or how it could work.  When you put it to the whiteboard or write it out in an email, it forces a certain level of detail and thought that’s different than just suggesting something.  Steve and I have been working on Gist for almost 3 years now and yesterday he went to the whiteboard and drew out a very simple diagram that clarified a good deal of our thinking.  Despite the fact that he had said the same thing a few minutes earlier, it was the drawing that made the point in a way that we could all understand and take action on.  Ask your VCs to write the long emails outlining their thoughts or draw a picture or framework that solves a hard problem.

- Frame the problem in a different light - we have a very big product footprint for the size and stage of the company.  We support Outlook, Gmail, Lotus Notes, Salesforce, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, iPhone, Android…And with all these platforms, we also have lots of partnership opportunities as well.  This make choosing where to focus sometimes very hard.  Yesterday, Brad said, “you should keep expanding until you can’t” and somehow that resonated with me and the team.  Brad also uses an analogy of “building muscles” to describe the process of doing the right things that will lead to success (e.g. shipping every 2 weeks, responding to customers requests immediately, keeping the bug counts near 0, focusing on a few key metrics every day, week, month, …).  Each of these frame the issues and are very useful and gives us new perspective.  Ask your VCs to help you think about a specific problem in a new way and give you a construct that works.

- Leverage your network- every VC that I have ever talked to has boasted about their network, but can they really make connections that matter?  Can they frame the situation/conversation in a way that yields results (a key meeting, a deal, a lower price, a top hire…)?  And do they do ongoing work to turn the connection into a successful outcome?  We are currently benefiting from several of these key relationships which in many ways are still being managed by Brad or Steve.  In addition, they have been great about making connections across their portfolio to other companies who have faced similar issues, or have worked with a specific partner or have executed a certain marketing program…These kinds of connections can lead to real learning and accelerate success on deals, process, hiring, management...Ask your VCs to work key relationships with you and drive toward success vs. just an introduction.

- Be a coach and a cheerleader - Our management team is reasonably well experienced as we have all worked in large and small software companies, started many businesses, bought, sold and even taken companies public.  But, sometimes we can’t see the proverbial forest through the trees.  Sometimes we try to convince ourselves that something is working when it isn’t.  Sometimes we are thinking something totally sucks and it actually has a good chance of success.   Sometimes we need a coach to point out the non-obvious weaknesses (most VCs are good at that) and sometimes we need a cheerleader.  Ask your VCs to bring out their best coaching and cheer-leading moments.

- Be a pattern matcher - Great VCs invest in tons of companies and can see patterns over time, both inside the company and across many companies.  Identifying these and calling them out is helpful.  Bringing anecdotes like “this is normal at your stage” or “when I invested in XX company, here is how they solved this issue” or “we were here 6 months ago and YY has not changed, you need to make a change”.  Ask your VCs to identify key patterns and suggest specific solutions that work, not from opinion but from experience.

- Be clear about your commitment and milestones - running a start-up is hard!  But with commitment from strong investors on what they expect to see when and what that means to funding can make it alot easier.  Making clear assertions and sticking with them about what is most important (product, users, usage, customers, revenue, profitability…) and by when is so helpful.  Every good start-up is working on a major idea in a fast moving space and has 1000′s of small choices to be made along the way.  Knowing clearly where your investors stand, how much $ they will commit over how much time and what milestones they expect is critical.  But along the way, things change and so having investors who are committed to the vision, to the team and to the process makes all the difference.  Ask your VCs how much, how long and what they expect along the way to help you achieve the vision!

To Brad, Steve, Paul, Vulcan and Foundry, thank you for your ongoing commitment toward our amazing vision for the future.