Floodgate, a venture capital firm that has funded numerous startups that have gone on to make quite a name for themselves (Twitter, Lyft, and Weebly are just a few examples) uses a somewhat unconventional approach when it comes to deciding in which companies they’ll invest. Rather than a system in which partners collectively vote on whether to invest, or analyze risk/reward and decide based on calculated predictions, Floodgate puts the decision in the individual’s hands.

Floodgate’s founder, Mike Maples Jr. puts it this way: “If somebody pounds the table and says ‘I will take ownership of this. I am responsible for the outcome of our returns,’ the deal happens. But if everybody around the table is an A- and says ‘I think this is a good deal for you to do Tim, or you to do Ann, or you to do Ryan, or you to do Arjun’ but nobody says ‘I will pound the table. I am irrationally in love with this,’ it doesn’t happen.”

The company operates on accountability and freedom. The choice is yours to make. It is your success or your failure, and no one else’s.

With their team of committed and experienced investors, extreme accountability is a greater guarantee of success than any series of rules or requirements, voting panel, or algorithm. It’s this spirit of ownership that led them to believe in and ultimately fund Twitter in the startup stage when Twitter was just a passionate idea with no plan for growth or monetization. On paper, it looked foolish; but paper doesn’t measure an individual’s drive to see something succeed. Now with universal name-recognition and a market value of around $18 billion, it’s fair to say that this conventionally-foolish Twitter investment panned out well.

Of course not all investments that are backed with passion and commitment will succeed. That’s not the the point. But extreme ownership will demand more work, greater adaptability, and more follow-through than any conventionally “good” investment backed only by lukewarm commitment. And this concept of ownership and personal accountability and responsibility extends beyond the world of venture capital -- it applies to your investments in yourself, your own ideas, and your own efforts. Good ideas and good intentions are fine, but it’s the willingness to pound the table that’s going to determine where your own investments go.

- PS

5/30/18

• Every 5 mins for 20 mins, for time:

• 250m row

• 60s handstand hold

• 15 deadlifts (225/155)

*record slowest time