portotype.com

✋ five levels of support

Let’s box support into 5 basic levels:

1. Friends, Family & Fans: I’ll support you no matter what.
2. Close business partners (most investors): If you do X, I’ll give you Y.
3. Clients: Show me what you got, then I’ll decide.
4. Disappointed: Unless you change X, I will leave.
5. Lost: I want out.

It’s important to recognize which role you’re playing and provide the correct level (or more!). Don’t expect 1, it’s rare.

That means being clear about the relationship and providing information.

As an angel investor, I always try to establish a close business partner connection; that is, I may say “i’ll put in a ticket of $k when you show me a prototype doing X”, or “.. when you land your first customer” or something. As a client, I generally wait for the iPhone release events to decide if I’ll buy it. But i’m also frequently a fanboy (apple) and may buy nonetheless!