Kass Lazerow

And they were going public, so they told us they were Sequoia-backed, and they had all their paperwork ready for filing their S-1 to go public in the spring. In March of 2000, just when everything was crashing in the dot-com era, we got a call from the CEO that told us that Sequoia had backed out, they were out of money, and they were going bankrupt and pulling us back in.

Talk about a real punch in the face and wishing we could take a mulligan if we're going to keep using like golf terminology here. It teaches you a lot of resilience. I think Mike and I would say that we learned the most from golf.com in that failure right there. Personally, I replayed in my head over and over again, like due diligence. What did I miss? the relationships.

Talk about a real punch in the face and wishing we could take a mulligan if we're going to keep using like golf terminology here. It teaches you a lot of resilience. I think Mike and I would say that we learned the most from golf.com in that failure right there. Personally, I replayed in my head over and over again, like due diligence. What did I miss? the relationships.

Talk about a real punch in the face and wishing we could take a mulligan if we're going to keep using like golf terminology here. It teaches you a lot of resilience. I think Mike and I would say that we learned the most from golf.com in that failure right there. Personally, I replayed in my head over and over again, like due diligence. What did I miss? the relationships.

And I just kept going back and back into my mind, trying to remember anything that I could have missed. But it really is, being an entrepreneur is a test of your grit and your ability to endure suffering.

And I just kept going back and back into my mind, trying to remember anything that I could have missed. But it really is, being an entrepreneur is a test of your grit and your ability to endure suffering.

And I just kept going back and back into my mind, trying to remember anything that I could have missed. But it really is, being an entrepreneur is a test of your grit and your ability to endure suffering.

I couldn't agree more with you, John. I think the ego happens a lot. It comes forward. And I think a lot of founders get blinded by their ego and pride. And we see this a lot when things aren't working. So let's just say a founder has told us that X, Y, and Z need to happen this year, and that's their plan.

I couldn't agree more with you, John. I think the ego happens a lot. It comes forward. And I think a lot of founders get blinded by their ego and pride. And we see this a lot when things aren't working. So let's just say a founder has told us that X, Y, and Z need to happen this year, and that's their plan.

I couldn't agree more with you, John. I think the ego happens a lot. It comes forward. And I think a lot of founders get blinded by their ego and pride. And we see this a lot when things aren't working. So let's just say a founder has told us that X, Y, and Z need to happen this year, and that's their plan.

And when there's enough data that they're looking for, they're looking at that basically says none of it's working. That's when the ego gets in the way. You start to see them trying to convince themselves that they shouldn't pivot or that something's not working because they tell themselves stories. And those stories are attached to their ego.

And when there's enough data that they're looking for, they're looking at that basically says none of it's working. That's when the ego gets in the way. You start to see them trying to convince themselves that they shouldn't pivot or that something's not working because they tell themselves stories. And those stories are attached to their ego.

And when there's enough data that they're looking for, they're looking at that basically says none of it's working. That's when the ego gets in the way. You start to see them trying to convince themselves that they shouldn't pivot or that something's not working because they tell themselves stories. And those stories are attached to their ego.

Mike always says being an entrepreneur is giving people a front row seat to your failures, right? Because it's hard to have the wins. And that's where we think that the ego gets stuck.

Mike always says being an entrepreneur is giving people a front row seat to your failures, right? Because it's hard to have the wins. And that's where we think that the ego gets stuck.

Mike always says being an entrepreneur is giving people a front row seat to your failures, right? Because it's hard to have the wins. And that's where we think that the ego gets stuck.

He slammed his hand on the desk, which back then we didn't have FaceTime or Zoom or anything like that. So we could hear the actual hand hitting the desk and yelled at us, don't shine the turd. And it was a lesson for us in that ego has to be put aside. You can't tell yourself stories to make up what the data is actually saying. And our sales were okay, not great, but we had this story and

He slammed his hand on the desk, which back then we didn't have FaceTime or Zoom or anything like that. So we could hear the actual hand hitting the desk and yelled at us, don't shine the turd. And it was a lesson for us in that ego has to be put aside. You can't tell yourself stories to make up what the data is actually saying. And our sales were okay, not great, but we had this story and

He slammed his hand on the desk, which back then we didn't have FaceTime or Zoom or anything like that. So we could hear the actual hand hitting the desk and yelled at us, don't shine the turd. And it was a lesson for us in that ego has to be put aside. You can't tell yourself stories to make up what the data is actually saying. And our sales were okay, not great, but we had this story and

They're good. We're getting there. And that we have taken care forward with us for every single investment, every single person that we can tell that story to. And it has served us really well.