Casey Caruso 11/29/2024

PARTNERING WITH FOUNDERS TO LET THEM WAIT 

You’re waiting in the lineup watching others fight for the next wave. They’re dropping in on each other, fighting for an edge, getting angsty. You haven’t seen anyone ride one into shore yet. The lineup has been getting crowded after this morning’s forecast of a killer swell.

You notice the changing winds as you spot what is almost imperceivable in the distance – just a tiny blip at the surface of the horizon. While everyone is racing over to the next wave, you paddle out even further and watch the blip grow in size as you perfectly position yourself at its forming peak. While the others are sat deep fighting for that other wave, you take a few strokes and feel the nudge of the ocean as you pop up. You ride past the others until you’re ripping all the way to shore. Thanks to perceptivity, patience and preparedness. 

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If you know the sport of surfing, you know that it is one of the most difficult sports out there.

Due to its variability, inconsistency, and various environmental factors, there’s a lot of time spent waiting on the board. But in those many moments of waiting, you’re seeing so many waves roll in, you’re taking in all that data and honing your instincts for when it’s worth expending energy to go all out chasing a wave. You’re adjusting your mental model and optimizing your rate of success. You are perceiving so many factors that ultimately lead you to the right timing. 

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We believe that founding a successful company, especially in frontier tech, is akin to surfing. At Topology, we partner with founders at the earliest stages to allow them to wait. Perhaps a peculiar, uncommon thing to hear from a VC, given you often hear them saying “we give capital to make you go faster” but hear us out. 

You go into the water (market) and study the waves (trends) happening. You observe. You paddle, you wait. You take in information, paddle some more, and wait some more for that wave. Adjusting iteratively. Sometimes it happens quickly, sometimes it takes long as hell, and sometimes the wave you think you’re waiting for never comes at all. You need enough conviction, tenacity, and resources to bide your time until the right wave breaks. The skill—intelligence, experience, tenacity—is essential for getting up (market pull) and making the ride (PMF). 

Timing is everything. You can do a lot to increase your odds but there’s a lot outside of your control as well. And you cannot chase two waves at once. Focus is crucial.

Given Topology partners with founders often as the first check in, we partner with founders to allow them to wait. No this doesn’t mean wasting time, this is often the period you’re learning the most. We trust that founders will be learning enough that when the moment is right, that small blip will turn into the biggest ride of their life.