00:52:54 · Brian Neider
[00:52:54] S0: So that is an entirely true story. In fact, I will send you the picture of it. It was a it was a funny one. We find companies oftentimes that we get excited about and we wanna make an investment. And sometimes we might already be shareholders in that company. We just wanna make a larger investment. Companies have a timetable on which they want to be fundraising. They will say, look. Like, we don't really want a term sheet. If we had a term sheet, we have to open up a conversation with our board. If we open up a conversation with our board, it's gonna lead to, like, some unintended consequences. We're really trying to finish q three, and once we finish q three, let's let's, like, have a discussion, stuff like that. Totally reasonable. But sometimes we have an inkling that maybe we need to move faster even though they're not telling us to move faster. So there's a particular situation where there was a business that we're invested in, and it was probably one of my favorite businesses I... That that we've ever invested in in all of my years at Lead Edge. They said, look, guys. Like, we totally understand you're excited and that you wanna invest more into the business. We're super flattered. It's gonna open up a bit of a can of worms if you if you send it a term sheet. And we had organized a meeting with them, and I was talking with my partner Mitchell, I'm saying, you know, gosh, like, what could we do to really shock them and wow them such that they'll never forget that we really want to invest in the business? And that when they do decide to raise capital, maybe, like, you know, we'll definitely be their first call. Came upon this idea to order one of these, like, Happy Gilmore style, like, giant checks. It was for a company called Duo Security. We showed up to their office, and actually, the company was based in Michigan, but we were meeting them in their California office. And I had ordered this big check to a friend's apartment. It was delivered there. I had to take, like, a Uber, like, double XL to fit the check into the trunk of the Uber. And we show up in the office with this giant box, and they're like, guys, what in the world are you doing? And we're like, we have something for you. It's our investment proposal. And they're like, what in the world are you talking about?
00:54:49 · Brian Neider, CJ Gustafson
So we pull out the check, and we hold it up, and we're like, you are our favorite company. We're giving you a check for $50,000,000. No questions asked. And they said, you're out of your minds. But I will tell you that a couple of months later, they decided to do a very large funding round, and when they did it, we were their first call, and we were the largest investor in that round. [00:55:08] S1: That's an amazing story. Small detail. Those checks, you can't actually cash them. Right? [00:55:13] S0: No. You cannot. Asking for a friend. [00:55:15] S1: I knew the answer to that. Brian, this has been an absolute blast. Thanks for [00:55:18] S0: joining me [00:55:19] S1: on the show. [00:55:19] S0: My pleasure. Really nice to spend time with you. [00:55:22] S1: Run the Numbers is a Mostly Media production. Yelling an intro by Fat Joe. Artwork by Meg D'Alessandro. Nothing said on this podcast is intended to be business or investment advice. It's the sole opinion of me, a guy who feeds his dog way too much ice cream and has a history of net operating losses. LOL. If you like this podcast, hit subscribe and give us five stars. It'll take like two seconds and our algorithm overlords love it. Drink water, call your mom, and have a great day. Peace.