I was talking with my friend George the other day. He told me about a guy he’d met. Indian, 22 years old. He had just raised $10M from one of the biggest funds out there.
With a pitch deck and a team. That’s it.
I asked George a ton of questions. How? Why him? What did he have that others didn’t?
His answer was simple. He didn’t have anchors.
We do. We carry them everywhere. We know how others raised. We know the multiples. We know what a “normal” round looks like at our stage. So before we even walk into the room, we’ve already decided what’s possible.
He hadn’t.
Sure, there’s survivorship bias here. For every one of him, there are hundreds who asked and got a no. But at least they heard it from someone else. Most of us say no to ourselves before anyone gets the chance.
Giorgos Mazonakis passed away recently. He was a singer, but you couldn’t put him in a box. Laiko, pop, rap. He sang everything. He wasn’t the best in a category. He was a category on his own.
Because he had no anchors either. Nobody told him which lane he was allowed to be in. Or if they did, he didn’t listen.
Yesterday I told a friend about our plans for the company. What we want to build. How big.
He told me it can’t be done. It’s impossible. Who else has done it before?
That’s an anchor too.
And he’s right about one thing. Nobody in our industry has done it.
We will.
Anchors don’t live in the market. They don’t live in the data. They live in your head. Someone else’s round becomes your ceiling. Someone else’s multiple becomes your valuation. Someone else’s “impossible” becomes yours.
Remove yours.
Sky is the limit.
