Reason #8 of 52 to invest in Venture

With all the talk of AI eating the world, what's getting lost in the conversation is the capacity of the human spirit, an internal drive that won't let someone quit or capitulate. It's rare to see, and when we do, in sport, for example, everyone applauds and might even weep.

In the world of entrepreneurship, perseverance is happening on a daily basis. And the thought of quitting is ever present. It's awesome to be along on someone's journey when they overcome major hurdles.

Take, for example, Josh Pigford, Founder of Maybe. Doriot Venture Club invested in Maybe in early 2023 via Republic as they were launching a financial advising app. By summer of last year, they had shut down the product because it wasn't gaining traction and they had run out of money. He and his team could have quit but they didn’t. 

They went back to the drawing board and released their original code to the public via GitHub, and then something magical happened. They received over 15,000 stars and tons of coders contributing to the code, and just recently, they raised $1.5MM of fresh capital. And they did this while keeping us small investors on the Cap Table with minimal dilution. Hell yes!

Of course, you gamble on outcomes (sports for example), and it's a zero-sum game. But, when you gamble on the human spirit, you're always in the game.

-gerry