7 Lessons Learned from Working in Venture Capital

RPM Ventures' front page features a toy idea taking off.

This summer, I've had the fortune of interning as a Venture Capital analyst for RPM Ventures, a seed-stage Great Lakes venture fund that combines Silicon Valley startup culture with a Midwest work ethic.  On my last day of the internship, I've had some time to reflect on a few quick lessons I've learned.

1. It's about the entrepreneur.

Solving the business problem equation isn't the real challenge. Winners are the ones that can solve the people equation too. #leadership
— Marc Weiser (@greatlakesvc) May 13, 2013

This is one of the four core values that RPM Ventures espouses.  A solid leadership team is the driving force behind any venture, and is the first thing that VCs look at when evaluating a pitch.  You may have the greatest idea to start a business, but so may many others.  Your team is unique, and the individual chemistry and experience inherent in the team can be found only in one place.

2. Ideas are cheap - action is what defines you.

@AlexOsterwalder At UofM, that is exactly what our startup courses stress. We also read the #BMGen book here! @UMCFE
— Matt Nicholas (@MattAtMich) August 15, 2013

There's a great line in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins that goes "It's not who I am underneath, it's what I do that defines me."  In the startup world, this has been well-known for a long time.  Plenty of people come up with an idea, and like to pitch it, but don't take measurable steps towards that goal.  Ideas are cheap and plentiful, but the action behind them isn't.
In the office, I used the silly term "Do-it-iveness" to describe the entrepreneurs we listened to who have a tendency towards action.  That do-it-iveness is what makes a want-repreneur into an entrepreneur.

3. Surround yourself with people smarter than you.

Marc Weiser, one of the managing directors at RPM Venures, stressed this gem to us during a lunch meeting.  It's oft-repeated, but Marc took it one step further, saying that when he's in a board meeting of a portfolio company, he wants everyone around him to be more knowledgable in the space, more passionate about the opportunity, and more driven to lead the company's success.  A venture capitalist is all of these things as well, of course, but if the management team isn't at the forefront of these three qualities, something is not right.

4. Burn the small forest

Josh Lin, the associate director at RPM, has this saying about "burning the forest behind you".  The idea is that, when you start out attempting to add value to your venture (by pitching your idea to venture capitalists or releasing it to initial customers), things won't go perfectly right away.  In fact, it might be a complete fiasco if you find out that a major part of your venture relies on a false assumption.  This is the process of burning the forest - it's when you test out an idea by releasing it on a small group of people.  You don't want your prototype device to fail at all, but if it will, you want it to happen before a small group of co-workers, not during a meeting with a major venture capitalist.  Once you burn the small forests, and figure out how to prevent the fires of crisis, then you can move forward and have the largest forests unscathed.

5. Focus on what you value.

"A business plan is a static document & there's no such thing as a static startup" @greatlakesvc @rpmvc #entrepreneurs
— mary lemmer (@me_lem) March 29, 2013

Ventures are turbulent ships.  Core people come in or leave, ideas are constantly validated or rejected, and the entire company may pivot several times before becoming a predictable engine of growth.  You need to be flexible without losing yourself or your vision in the waters.  You can do this by distilling your company down into the major value proposition, and putting all your effort into making sure that core value is intact.  Testing whether people will buy a product through your new online site is easier than testing whether people will buy a product or recommend it to friends or click on sidebar ads or use it to sign up for newsletters.  If the value prop isn't strong enough, you have successfully rejected the proposition, and can focus on testing out a new one.

6. Take risks while you have the opportunity.

During my last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Tony Grover, who manages RPM Ventures with Marc Weiser.  We talked a lot about the future of venture capital, Silicon Valley, the Great Lakes region, and soon-to-be Michigan Alumni (like me!).  One of the major points that stuck in my mind was his opinion that now, more than any future time in my life, is the best time for me to get involved in the startup world.  At the present, I don't have a car to pay off, no mortgage on a house, no romantic relationships tying me down to a location, just a lot of freedom and the ability to couchsurf and live out of a backpack for as long as I need (which I'm currently doing).

When life catches up to you, and you gain responsibilities for more than just your own goals (taking care of kids, paying back loans, etc), you find it difficult to take calculated risks.  It's not impossible, as Tony mentioned, but it is difficult and stressful.

Before I graduate, I want to get involved in the startup community here at Michigan.  Once I've gotten my diploma, I want to take a jump and move out to Silicon Valley or New York, and get swept up in a new venture.

7. The essential rule of thumb for startups in uncertain waters:

When in doubt, chase the dream. Thanks @me_lem for reminding us all of that.
— Marc Weiser (@greatlakesvc) May 3, 2013

Back of the Envelope: Is Elon Musk's Hyperloop feasible?

Elon Musk's Hyperloop idea looks like it belongs in Futurama.

51.2 billion dollars.  According to the California High Speed Rail Authority, that's the cost of connecting Tinseltown to the Golden Gate by high speed rail, offering a 2.5 hour trip instead of the current 5.5 hour drive time.  There are several downsides, however:

* Flying nonstop from L.A. to San Francisco is still faster, at around 1 hour and 25 minutes.

* Operating the maintaining the rail would cost between $600 million and $1 billion per year.

* Earthquake safety would be a concern for high-speed tracks over major fault lines.

* 51.2 billion dollars is a lot of money.  The eventual total cost of the project may exceed $80 billion by planned completion in 2025.

Thus, when Elon Musk, billionaire founder of SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and PayPal, announced on Monday that he had a plan to connect the cities for a tenth of the cost, quite a few critics were ready to listen.

Enter the Hyperloop.  

You can read Musk's original announced plans here.

Product
You've probably already read a bunch about the technical specifications about the Hyperloop, and whether it will work, or whether it will work for the cost.  (If not, you can find a description at any. of. these. websites.)  For my Back of the Envelope bit, I'm going to go ahead and assume that everything is technologically feasible.  If the idea makes business sense, then we can get a few engineers together and double-check Musk's math.  More importantly, will people use this?

Fun Fact:  Robert Goddard, the father of modern rocketry, actually won the first patent of a high-speed tube transportation device on my birthday in 1950.

Positives:  It doesn't require a major change in customer behavior.  We all know how to sit down for a train ride or short flight, and the differences between boarding a train or plane and getting on the Hyperloop seems minimal.  I expected the ticket cost for the Hyperloop to be comparable to airplane tickets (which run about $200), but Musk's projections suggest a too-good-to-be-true $20 per trip.  As comparison, driving a 2013 Toyota Corolla the same distance will cost $45 on gas alone.  While 20 bucks is likely a very low-balled estimate, the degree of magnitude difference from airfare makes the Hyperloop very attractive to consumers.

There aren't many cons for such a device, mostly because we don't have much data on what a tube system would entail.  The biggest negative is that this would be the first time a tube system for human transportation is implemented, so there is a lot of uncertainty about safety and legal red tape.  Also, some motorheads may prefer the independence of driving their own car, but with fuel costs on the rise, this group has dwindled in number significantly.

Product Score:  4.5 Stars

The product sounds way too good to be true, but that's no reason for knocking off any points just yet.  A half-star is taken because the Hyperloop is a new product, and its adoption is unproven in other markets (unlike the high-speed rail), but if the Hyperloop can deliver, it far exceeds anything else seen before.

Market
So let's assume that people decide to use the Hyperloop for their commute between LA and SF.  How many people could be expected to use it?  

It's difficult to find exact figures on how many people travel from L.A. to San Francisco each year, because of the variety of routes and methods of getting between the cities.  For the purpose of this analysis, I took the figures of people who fly directly between major L.A. and San Francisco airports (about 6 million people per year), the number of people who drive on the major commuter route, Interstate 5 (averaging 566,000 vehicles per day, though this includes all people using the road), and people taking Amtrack's popular Coast Starlight route up and down the West Coast (1,169 daily, according to Amtrack's website).

Driving is still the preferred method of California Coast travel.

By Air:  6 million fliers per year
By Road:  566,000 vehicles per day * 365 days per year * 10% traffic direct from LA to San Francisco (a very rough estimate) * 1.5 people per vehicle, on average = 30,988,500 commuters per year (~31 million/year)
By Rail:  1,169 train passengers per day * 365 days per year = 426,685 riders per year

This gives a total annual passenger usage of around 37.4 million.  At $20 per passenger, this would net $748 million annually, which is a lot, but will be eaten up much by operations and maintenance.  If the O&M figures are similar to the high speed rail ones, there might not be much profit.  But if it requires cheaper maintenance (which we have no idea at the moment), a large chunk of that money might be used to pay back investors.

Market Score:  3.5 Stars

The market is there, and easily accessible, but adoption is everything in a major infrastructure project like the Hyperloop.  If it gains early traction, it has an addressable market that could really net huge returns.  If there are early problems that derail (unfortunate pun) the idea early-on, it might become a bigger, shinier Amtrak, which is bad news for billion dollar investors looking for massive returns.


Team
So here is really the meat of the issue.  Elon Musk's name is what makes the Hyperloop worth talking about - if any other billionaire had pitched the idea of pneumatic high-speed people movers, they would've been politely laughed out of the board room.  Musk has a track record of making the improbable happen, and even netting unforeseen profits.  The Hyperloop idea was apparently sketched out by a joint team of Tesla Motors and SpaceX engineers, and contains signature elements of both companies in the design.  The talent, funding, and leadership is all impeccable.

A real-life Tony Stark?  Almost.

The one major flaw in the team is Elon Musk's apparent detachment from the idea.  He's mentioned that he is remaining focused on Tesla and SpaceX, and made the Hyperloop project open source for someone else to take the reins.  While he is likely to offer significant monetary backing, and maybe even build a proof-of-concept prototype, his leadership is the one thing that could make this idea truly worth an investor pitch.

Team Score:  2 Stars

All-in-all, not a home run for Silicon Valley investors by any means, but if Elon Musk comes around and decides to invest more than just his nominal support, he might find high net-worth individuals willing to join him on a personal level.

If the laws of physics and all those other "small details" are truly worked out, I'd be fascinated to see the societal impact taking this idea seriously and investing the time to change travel forever.