NATHANGUO

Aaron Harris of YC recently published a great blog post on I and we. While the discussion is focused on the relationship between an entrepreneur and their employees, but this discussion of ego is also applicable to the investor-entrepreneur relationship. Generally speaking, the investor is not in the trenches in the portfolio company's industry. As a result, the entrepreneur has more detail and information from the day-to-day operations than the investor, and thus has a higher knowledge base for making decisions. On the other hand, it's harder for the entrepreneur to evaluate firm strategy objectively due to their involvement in the day-to-day running of the firm, and because of human factors that cloud the passing of information... Thus, it is the leaders' job to maintain a healthy level of tension. Boards must be able to have honest, objective discussions about the strategic direction and decisions a company will make, and the leader of the board (the CEO and/or the Chairman) is..