Love of Money is the Root of All Kinds of Evil

I sent an email to a VC in San Francisco that said, "After our conversation, I did a little due diligence, and I am rethinking our deal."

A few months ago I decided to sell half my stock in a private company. It was the only company I ever invested in that became a unicorn. Mind you, it was a small investment as my angel investments go, but it grew in value significantly.

Since I was never blessed with this good fortune, I wasn't sure what to do. Do I ride it out and watch it grow (or shrink)? Or do I sell a portion of the stock, lock in a profit, and let the rest ride?

The advice I got from two great local VC friends was, "Sell half your position. It will give you a great return. The rest is all upside."

It took about six months to decide to follow their advice. I called the founder of the company and asked if there was anybody who was interested in buying my stock. He said, "There is. He is a small VC in San Francisco who is looking to buy whatever stock is available from current investors."

I called him and asked him to make an offer. He’d just completed a purchase and told me he'd buy my shares for the same price. It was a fair deal. I agreed to sell half my stock to him.

Forty-five days later, the company's lawyers still didn't get the stock purchase and transfer agreements completed. I put a little pressure on them through the typical channels. One of those channels was through the buyer in San Fran. I asked him to put a little heat on them.

During that conversation, he asked if I would be interested in selling even more shares. I said, "I'm not sure."

He answered, "If you sell the other half of your holdings, I'll increase the price on the whole lot." This offer was very tempting.

I said I would think about it and get back to him.

The next day, I started to make some calls to find out what was happening with the company. It is a private company, so there wasn't a whole lot to find out, but there was enough. And what I found out was this. The company was hitting its numbers and growth projections. This means the stock price I accepted was too low. I was leaving money on the table.

I thought about this for a day. I decided, "I have an email agreement with this VC but no real agreement. I'll tell him I want to renegotiate. I need to get a stepped-up valuation that better reflects the progress that's been made over the last sixty days."

That's when I sent that one-sentence email.

Almost immediately after pressing send, I received a reply from the VC. Here is what he wrote back.

"There is a saying in scripture – let your yes be yes and your no be no. I can only pray that your commitment to me over the last couple of months will reflect that your deed follows your word as a man of ethics.

”We have spent quite a bit of money to educate you on this process, so if we are headed in a different direction than what has been agreed to in good faith, in writing, and verbally – all I can say is Godspeed."

I read this and my heart sank. Not because I could potentially lose this buyer but because he called me out. My values, my faith, my word were all in question.

I called him and started the conversation by asking, "Tell me about yourself."

He asked, "About my firm or about me?"

I said, "About you. I want to know who I am dealing with. You quoted the exact right verse in the Bible. The very words of Jesus Christ. Are you a born again believer?"

He didn't answer that question directly. But what he did do was tell me about his childhood, his dad who is a street evangelist, his mom, his brother, and his upbringing. He told me the business he was in before he became a VC. He even told me how he got this deal completed and about the investors backing him.

Then he asked, "What about you. Who are you? What's your story?"

I gave him the same level of detail he gave me. After I discovered he was forty years old, I revealed more details on what happened to me when I was his age. The success, the drinking, the emptiness, the potential loss of my wife and family. I included my AA journey. How six months into my sobriety I asked myself, "Who is this higher power who took my desire to drink from me and saved my life?"

And then I told him how I came to know it was Jesus. He put me on the path to sobriety and surrounded me with men who introduced him to me. Shortly thereafter, I gave my life to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

He gave me back my life, my wife, and my kids and put me into a new career as an angel investor. It was miraculous.

That's what I told him.

About halfway through, I asked if this was more than he wanted to know? He said, "No. A lot of your story is hitting home with me."

We finally got to the details on how I came to the conclusion I was being played by him. I thought he was taking advantage of me. After all, I never did a private stock transaction.

He answered this concern by telling me how he became a VC. How he got interested in buying this company’s restricted stock. How he made the deal with me. How he got the money together from his investors for this transaction.

I said, "So if I back out of this deal, I am hanging you out to dry. I will impune your credibility with your investors."

He said, "That's about it."

"Let me think about our conversation, and I'll get back to you in the morning."

I hung up the phone. Walked out of my office. I didn't make it to the kitchen. Turned around. Walked back in my office. Called the VC and said, "I will honor our agreement." Then I apologized.

That night I told Kathy what happened. She said, "You did the right thing. I'm proud of you."

That was God speaking to me through Kathy.

Final thoughts

My desire for more money trumped my values which are based in my beliefs. I thought of all kinds of reasons why renegotiating the deal was the right thing to do for my family and me. In the midst of all this rationalizing, I thought, "This will be a part of my story going forward. Is this something I will be proud to tell my wife, my children, and my grandchildren? Is this who I am?"

In spite of all this thinking and questioning, I wrote that one sentence email to the VC.

I am amazed how God gave me a second chance by giving that VC Jesus' words...

"Let your yes be yes and your no be no."

I slept like a baby that night.

The next day I called that VC and thanked him for the impact he had on my life.