If the Shoe Fits: VCs are People, Too
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here
As you know I don’t follow Twitter, but I don’t really have to, since sooner or later, tweet threads that would interest me become the basis of something I read.
A few weeks ago an article in Business Insider cited a series of tweets from VCs moaning about their stressful existence and that saying they needed a support group.
Support group? Really? I haven’t heard of any VC suicides, which isn’t the case with a number of other demographics.
Ron Conway was quick to shoot the need down.
“I’m embarrassed that a VC would think their job is stressful when starting a company is the most stressful thing ever.”
(And while I agree that starting a company is extremely stressful, I don’t think it qualifies for the “most” slot, since doing so is voluntary.)
However, it did give me an idea as follows.
- Recruit two or more star shrinks and/or get Stanford involved.
- Create a private online community for VCs (using their company address and fully verified)
- The site should be heavy on security and use biometrics instead of passwords for logins.
- The community should be either SaaS or membership dues.
- Groups should be created for various problems, such as business-related stress, internal politics, family-related stress, etc.
- Each group session would be moderated by the appropriate shrink.
- Private sessions would be available by appointment.
Here is the most important part.
- Incorporate the entity as a non-profit.
- Pricing should be similar to an exclusive country club.
Here is my reasoning.
- It needs to be expensive to prove its value to its market.
- VCs are competitive and will join for bragging rights.
- It should be non-profit so the money could go towards paying mental health costs for tech community members who can’t afford it and have no insurance.
So, if someone out there wants to take this and run with it as a non-profit, I’ll be happy to help. My contact information is on the right.
Image credit: HikingArtist
