风险投资是合伙，不是买卖

    接受一笔风险投资不应被视为一桩买卖，它更像是合伙。

    买卖的本质是一次性交易，合伙则需要持续的关注。实现这个观念上的转变，将会对你选择哪种类型的合伙人以及如何选择产生重大影响。

    如果交易被视为“买卖”，这时就只剩下一件要事，也就是追求价值最大化。下面这些情形都体现了这种思维：

    房地产买卖：你真地不关心谁买了你的房子，只想卖个最高价。

    其他有形资产买卖（汽车、艺术品等等）：适用同样的原则（虽然你可能会想为自己的宝贝改装车找到个好人家！）。

    公司收购：要看情况。有时候，“买家是谁”确实很重要，价值最大化可能不是唯一的动力，因为取决于收购交易，你可能 1)最终成为收购方的股东；2）最终成为收购方的员工；以及、或者3）你打造的公司及品牌已经有了很大发展，希望它们能继续发展。

    可以看到在上面这个列表中，（就决定因素而言），越往后的“买卖”越复杂。我想在这样的列表中，与房地产买卖正好处于另一个极端的是风险投资。

    评估潜在合伙人时，价值最大化绝对是做决定时需要考虑的因素，但不应该是唯一的因素（或许，即便是在这份列表中排在最前面的“买卖”，也不应将价值最大化考虑在内。）你需要与团队中的其他成员坐下来，想清楚对于所有人而言什么是长期和短期内最重要的事情，然后以此为标准选择合伙人。

    人们很容易认为选出价最高的团体，就是选对了合伙人（需要明确的一点是，很多时候，出价最高的很可能的确也是最佳选择），但你需要搞清楚，他们是不是你想长期合作的人。

    Taking a VC investment should not be viewed as a transaction – it should be approached as a partnership.

    After all, transactions are one-time in nature whereas partnerships are an ongoing concern. Changing one's thinking around this will not only shape the type of partner you select, and but also how you go about selecting them.

    When a deal is viewed as a "transaction," there is really only one key component – value maximization. This type of mentality should occur in situations like:

    Real estate sales: You don't really care who buys your home, you just want to see it go for the highest price.

    Other tangible asset sales (cars, art, etc.): The same rule of thumb applies here (though you may want to see that precious hot rod of yours go to a good home!).

    Company acquisitions: This actually depends. Sometimes it really does matters who the buyer is, and value maximization may not be the sole motivator because — depending on the acquisition — you may 1) End up a shareholder in the acquirer; 2) End up an employee of the acquirer; and/or 3) You've built your business and its reputation to a certain point and you want to make sure it is maintained.

    As you can see, the above "transactions" get more complex (in terms of decision factors) as we move down the list. In my opinion, at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the real estate transaction is a VC investment.

    Value maximization should absolutely be a part of your decision matrix when evaluating potential partners, but it should not be the sole factor (and perhaps it shouldn't even be included toward the top of the list). You need to sit down with the rest of your team and figure out what is important to you all in both the near- and long-term, and you need to use that as criteria for selecting a partner.

    It's easy to be tricked into thinking you are selecting the right partner by picking the group that offers you the highest valuation (and, just to be clear, on many occasions, the high bidder may very well be the best fit), but you need to be sure that they are a group you want to work with over the long haul.