The Collaborator Effect

Why partners often matter more than investors

A pair of co-founders I’ve advised recently reached out to tell me that a story I told them changed the course of their company.

Here's what happened.

It was 2018, and I was preparing to start raising money for Haus.

Naively, I thought it would be pretty easy. Alcohol was the last industry that hadn't been disrupted by a DTC brand, and through a legal loophole, we'd figured out how to be the first to do it. Research indicated that this was beyond a billion-dollar opportunity, and alcohol acquisition multiples were similar to software, meaning I had a good chance of raising VC. On top of that, I had a massive rolodex of contacts from my 10+ years of working in Silicon Valley. Half of my friends had already had massive exits, and countless others were established investors, VCs, and journalists. I’d been reading VC blogs for years to learn the ins and outs of fundraising, and felt like I understood the game. I figured that raising a friends and family round would be doable.

But boy, was I wrong. Six months of pitching later, and not a single person had said yes. In fact, many people thought I'd lost my mind and stopped talking to me. While some people could see the potential, they just couldn’t risk being one of the first ones in.

It was nearing the end of 2018, and I’d pitched everyone I knew. I was determined to launch by summer, only 8 months away. But we had no physical product, no brand, and no money.

Something had to change.