Rejecting Investor Coffee

Shaan shares a story about managing relationship boundaries with a portfolio company founder.

"There's a founder in my portfolio who emailed me and said 'Hey I'm in town, want to get coffee?' I would happily get coffee with this guy - I like him. But I didn't even think about it because that week was crazy. My sister-in-law had a baby, my father-in-law had to go to the ER. That week was nuts for us and I was basically just watching the kids, we're at a hospital most of the week.

I emailed him back saying 'Sorry, I was busy this week. Next time you're in San Francisco, we'd love to grab coffee.' He responded 'Not gonna lie, bit of a turn off that our investor didn't want to get coffee.'

I agree that might be a turn off for him, but I don't live my life that way where I have to do all the things people want me to do. There's a lot of requests of things people want me to do. There's a trade-off, there's a selfishness to it, but I personally feel that it's also selfish for other people to make their priority your priority."