Larry Cheng

I talked to 200 different investors, and they didn't even say no to me.

Most of them ghosted me.

And in my world, the investors are called limited partners, LPs.

And the reason they ghost you is because they want to see if you can raise your fund to get close to your target, and then they can come in at the finish line.

And I didn't take any of those turndowns or ghostings personally, because honestly, I understood.

We are a new firm.

There are reasons to not invest with us.

It's a long-term commitment.

It's like a marriage.

And I didn't take it personally.

And somewhere in like 200 to 210,

someone actually committed.

And that started the ball rolling.

And we got a few more investors.

And we ultimately raised our first fund.

And our first investment out of that fund was Chewy, which became the leading pet food e-commerce business, which I'm sure we'll talk about, a multi-billion dollar exit.

And we've been off to the races the last 15 years.

And so now we're sitting here where we are 15 years later.

I still don't take turndowns personally because there are going to be times when certain investors, they can't invest or it's not the right fit, and that's a-okay.

And we certainly don't take for granted any investor who wants to invest in us because we know how hard it is the first time.