The importance of understanding your weaknesses - Chris Sacca on TWIST

Chris Sacca and Matt Mazzeo on TWIST — Photo courtesy of TWIST

I recently listened to part 1 of an interview with Chris Sacca and Matt Mazzeo of Lowercase Capital on This Week in Startups.

If you're not aware, Lowercase Capital is one of the most successful seed stage investment firms in existence. Chris and Matt have invested in companies like Twitter, Uber, Stripe, Kickstarter, and many, many more.

The interview was really insightful and interesting. One of the things that stood out to me was when Chris said that he passed on Snapchat because he thought it was only about dick pics. When he told Matt that he passed, Matt was livid because he was a Snapchat user and thought it was an amazing product.

Chris is a little older, has a family, and thus has never swiped right or left (i.e. never used Tinder).

He isn't in tune with the new ways that people are interacting with apps and each other.

This made Chris realize that his strength isn't in taking the first meeting with a startup. He doesn't "get" many of the products that are targeted toward millennials and younger people, so he's not a good judge of whether he should invest in them.

Thus, he relies on Matt to judge those potential investments.

I love how one of the most successful investors in the world can openly admit his weaknesses and even more importantly, bring in people who can complement those shortcomings.

I think many times ego gets in the way and entrepreneurs (or anyone, really) think they can do it all.

Continuing to learn and understand new concepts is powerful, but sometimes you just have to realize that you can't improve certain weaknesses enough. So you need to bring in additional resources and share the responsibility.

If one of the most successful investors in the world can be introspective enough to identify his weaknesses, everyone can.

It's a powerful thing.

Have you identified your weaknesses, and if so, how have you dealt with them? Talk to me in the comments!

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