This was a hard post for me to write. I tried 3 or 4 times over the last few days to write it. I’d start and stare at the plank page (page meaning my computer screen), I’d write something and delete it (something I rarely do). I tried writing in my Moleskine, which is usually the best way for me to overcome writers block but that didn’t work. I even tried to do a video post but it turned out to be complete crap.  But I think I finally got things under control.

Photo: d.loop/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Photo: d.loop/Flickr (Creative Commons)I’m not an overly sentimental person. I mourn friends and family that die but I believe I’ll see them again. This life is just one stop along the way.

But when a company dies, a company I’ve been involved in, I feel a different sense of loss. The people are still there but something’s gone and it’s not just the business. I felt this same way when I found out the skateboard shop I owned  and sold to someone else shut down a few years ago. I don’t know if I can explain it.

Death on Highway 12

Earlier this week @mark_solon announced that Highway 12 Ventures, the VC firm I worked at, was not going to raise a third fund. When I first read the post I inserted in my head (not right now). Mark’s been talking about raising the third fund for several years (VC’s start thinking about it the minute that close the last one). I thought Mark was saying that they were going to focus on their current funds and worry about the third fund later. But there is no later here, ever and I didn’t want to believe it.

In VC terms this meant that they are going out of business. Not right away but they won’t be funding anymore new companies and when the two funds they manage run their course over the next several years, that’s it. It was strange for Mark to make this announcement because normally VC firms just drift into obscurity. There’s no reason to ever “go out of business” because a VC firm is like the LLC that many people hold onto for side consulting projects or just whatever, it just exists forever if you want it to. But mark doesn’t want to send the wrong impression to regional startups. (From WSJ)

As for announcing its plans to wind down, Solon said other companies that might look to Highway 12 for funding deserved to know where the firm stands.

“We thought it was a disservice to entrepreneurs in the region to slowly disappear,” he said.

 I can honestly say that I personally have never seen Mark or any of the other partners at Highway 12 make a decission that wasn’t in the best interest of entrepreneurs and the startups in their portfolio. There aren’t enough VC’s like Mark, Phil, Glen and George. They will be sorely missed in the region and the VC industry. Besides the fore mentioned WSJ article you can read additional coverage from other VC’s speculating on the model of regional VC firms, from regional tech blogs speculating on what it means for the region, and (although it took them a few days to get around to it) the local Idaho paper.

I talked with Mark yesterday (by talked I mean exchanged several DM’s on Twitter) and I know he and the other partners will be just fine. Most of them will end up on boards and stay involved in other things but I know Mark has a few other ideas he’s mulling over for when he’s done with the two funds they’re still managing, and I can’t wait to talk to him in more detail about them.

So while I’m sad, I’m excited to see what comes next and I’m proud to have been involved in some small way in the work that was done there.

But most of all I find that I’m motivated to do bigger and better things. To push myself harder and to live life, enjoy my family and have a whole lot of fun along the way.