On a windy spring day in Las Vegas, my husband and I were playing Jenga and I stopped the game because I felt his moves were not making sense.
As I thought about what didn’t make sense to me, I realized that it was the rules we had adopted without thinking about their relevance. Here we were playing against each other, when we were actually both facing a greater competitor: 20 mile per hour winds! My husband was trying to make the structure unstable for me but, at the end of each game, the wind was the one having all the fun.
So I suggested we join sides to play against our invisible third player: “Let’s build the tallest, most stable structure we can, to withstand the wind.” After initial strong reluctance to collaborate, we eventually became allies, built our tallest towers to date, and had a lot of fun finding creative ways to defy the forces working to keep our towers weak and small.
Now I invite you to rethink the investing rules you have adopted, and your objective. I invite you to think about who the rules of our economy and society tell you is your competition. Who are the players you are competing against or not paying attention to who could be great allies? Who or what are the antagonists you are not taking into account? What rules can you change, or just discard? How could you play the game differently for more rewarding outcomes? What could you accomplish as a result?
Returning to the Jenga™ metaphor, how could you reset your objective from a zero-sum proposition — I win when others lose — to a mutual benefit proposition — we all win when we together create a taller, more resilient tower than any of us have ever built before, or that any of us could build on our own?
At Reinventure Capital we are changing the “rules” of the venture capital game by investing in amazing founders like Dennis Cail, Dexter Turner and Isabel Rafferty. Together with them, we are collaborating to build profitable, scalable enterprises that create prosperity and positive impact in our communities. Together with amazing co-investors and limited partners (LPs), we are collaborating to deploy capital against systemic racism and sexism and to generate advantageous returns. And together with all of our collaborators and allies, we are also having a lot of fun!
Come play with us!
Are you also playing the venture capital game by a different set of mutually beneficial rules? We would love to find ways to collaborate with you. Please contact us. And please share so others can join you!
***
Photo credit: Jose Alfredo Chumpitazi
*While there’s no such thing as a guarantee in investing and no one can reliably predict the future, Ed’s prior track record delivering 32%IRR to investors provides direct evidence that it is indeed possible to consistently invest for both financial returns and social value creation. If you are an accredited investor and would like to learn more about investments that can advance social, racial, and gender equity by supporting high-value companies led by women and/or people of color, please contact us to start that conversation.
Legal Notice
The information contained in this blog does not constitute, and should not be used or construed as, an offer to sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy, securities of any issuer, fund or other investment product in any jurisdiction. No such offer or solicitation may be made prior to the delivery of definitive offering documentation. The information in this blog is not intended and should not be construed as investment, tax, legal, financial or other advice.