by Troy Norris

Created on: February 01, 2009   Last Updated: February 06, 2009

When I was first getting started as an entrepreneur at the turn of the millennium, I watched a seemingly endless procession of tech start ups receiving massive influxes of cash from venture capitalists and IPOs while my own decidedly non-tech business struggled through its early cash flow issues. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy at what I perceived to be the solution to all of my problems. Researching a little further into the back story of a couple of the more successful tech tycoons, the formula seemed clear. Start whatever plucky business idea you could think of as long as it dealt with computers or had a .com on the end of it, get millions of dollars from some slick VC in California to get it off the ground, and then have an IPO a few months later and cash out to the biggest payday of your life.

Practically bubbling over with ideas and optimism at what I had discovered, I pulled into my weekly lunch meeting with my mentor, though that's probably to generous of a term to describe our relationship. In exchange for buying him lunch at his favorite hole in the wall barbecue shack, I was treated to the pleasure of having him explain to me why what I was doing wasn't working and how I could most effectively pull my head out of my sitting apparatus to salvage some kind of dignity and profitability from it all. It was a frustrating experience most of the time, but well worth the lessons I learned from it.

Sitting down with an arm full of notes and a big grin on my face, he muttered "Uh-oh" and folded his menu, removed his reading glasses, and squared himself with the table to brace for the onslaught he knew was coming. As I related my findings to him with sweeping hand gestures I passed a stream of notes to his side of the table. He would glance at each politely before setting them aside with the occasional raised eyebrow or nod, and managed to keep his humor at me to a small smirk that lasted the entire duration of my spirited rant. He waited to say anything until I seemed to have run out of steam.

His smirk grew into a full on smile as he asked, "Do you know what I like to call VCs?"

I considered what he asked for a moment, trying to figure out whether the question was a trap or not, before deciding that it was safer to keep my end of the conversation mono-syllabic. "No."

"Vulture capitalists!" He laughed loudly at his own joke.

Not really comprehending at first I asked what that was supposed to mean. "Well simply put it just means they're not your friend."

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