This year’s holiday card from Blueprint Ventures totally made me crack up.  Like all things that are comic genius, there’s so much in it that resonates as true. 

Gary Snowman is a successful entrepreneur who fantasizes about the decadent and jetset lifestyle he imagines venture capitalists lead.  Ah, yes, Venture Capital is a ‘lifestyle’ job, but as he says towards the end of the video, “Life as a VC isn’t exactly as I expected.”

Disappointingly for Gary Snowman, it turns out that being a VC involves long hours, lots of hard work, and a lot of hustling.  His assistant interrupts his reverie with, ”I have your itinerary for your trip.  You have a 6:30am to Boston, an 8pm to Minneapolis, a 10am to Chicago, and a 2pm to New York. And business class was too pricey so you’re going all coach.”

This is funny because it’s so true.  It made me think of my typical week here, which basically involves running from meeting to meeting to meeting.  Here’s what my average week has looked like:
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And lest you think it’s because I’m the newest person of our team, I would have to say that the partners here work even harder.  It reminds me of my days as a cofounder of a startup - you’re fighting for market share in a ruthlessly competitive environment and ultimately, the company is no more and no less than what YOU put into it. 

There is also this interesting dynamic - all of these meetings on my calendar are with other people - with entrepreneurs, potential portfolio company hires, potential partners of some kind - so I spend the bulk of my day socializing with other people, yet as Seth Levine has noted, it can still be somewhat of a lonely business.  Fortunately for me, it suits my personality type and interests well, but it is an interesting dynamic.   More on this later.