Last night I called one of my favorite entrepreneurs.

And about ten seconds into the call, I could hear him crying.

At that point, I knew the Company we had invested in, that had pivoted with hopes of rising like a phoenix from the ashes, was actually much more likely to crash and burn.

Although we had spent the last six months trying to recapitalize and refocus the business after losing the co-founder, it became clear it wasn’t going to work.   It was now time to switch from being an investor to being his friend.

Money comes and goes, but the relationships with my entrepreneurs should last a lifetime.

So I immediately realized what he really needed was support, not beratement. He already felt horrible for failing and losing people’s money.

And I am a VC. We expect to lose money trying to innovate and build great companies.

Thus, we…