There's a time and place for everything. I, unfortunately, along with many others, stumble upon opportunities at the wrong time.
I recently had the privilege of talking to Mike Maples Jr. on the phone— and he gave me the chance to ask any questions about him and his firm Floodgate, which had a number of unicorns in its portfolio. I was given this opportunity through a Twitter thread, one where someone asked who their favorite investor was and why.
And lucky me, Mike replied to my response. It's like when I met Bill Gurley on campus at UT my junior year. Pure luck and I just so happened to shoot my shot at the right time.
What didn't work out was the timing. For me, I haven't been working on anything significant (company wise) and have no inclination of really going into venture capital at this point. You're either on one side of the table or the other— it's hard to get involved otherwise.
And my conversation with Mike wasn't as impactful as I thought it would be. There just was no direct ask on my end, and things didn't line up as well as they should've.
But, I'm an optimist. So I know that someday that conversation and the chance I got to talk to Mike and Bill will someday be beneficial and help me greatly. It just wasn't the case my first time around.