Perseverance – the Real Growth Capital

This past holiday weekend, I had some time to watch a few episodes of The History Channel’s new mini-series called, “America, The Story of Us.” The 12-part series shows the evolution of the United States from concept to a world super power, along with the events that fostered this transformation. George Washington and his fellow rebels were America’s first true entrepreneurs: taking a vision and set of ideas and turning them into an established nation. This industriousness is at the core of the American psyche — a belief that nothing can get in the way of dogged and unbridled perseverance. 

One of the most profound examples in the series was that of Thomas Edison. In what was one of the first true research and development labs in the United States, Edison worked tirelessly for thousands of hours to develop a lighting source that did not need kerosene and a match. Edison was determined to find a substance that could be lit with the aid of electricity. For the filament, he needed a material that would burn for hours, not seconds. It is said that he tried over 6,000 separate things. He would attach material #1 to the two contact wires and flip the switch. Time after time, the material snapped, burned in moments, or failed to ignite. It was not until trying a piece of carbonated bamboo that Edison was successful.

Think for a moment what would happen if Edison had given up after 4,000 materials. Maybe someone else would have come along and figured out the electric light bulb. But it could have been years without an electric light source.

Edison epitomizes the combination of innovation and motivation that has come to define the American entrepreneur. These are often brilliant individuals who could have been quite comfortable in a more established profession, like medicine or finance. But they defy convention in the name of something greater.

As an associate at a Boston-based growth capital firm, I interact with these types of visionaries often. When looking for investors, founders realize that they need help in order to make their vision a reality. Entrepreneurs engage with OpenView Venture Partners when they see the potential for their product or service and acknowledge that they need both capital and operational leverage to create a much larger company. Humble perseverance and indomitable will to succeed define the 21st century inventor as much as they did Edison.