As we know, Chris Schultz is involved in many ventures in New Orleans and beyond. So how does he know when do say no and pass up an opportunity to work with an individual or company? He uses an opportunity lens. Chris said, “In the same way that VC’s have an investment thesis, we all need a framework to evaluate opportunities.” He works off his checklist below to make the evaluation.- Is it tech, scalable, and innovative? If not, I probably can’t be helpful, and its not really up my alley.
- Does it leverage my business assets (Launch Pad & Flatstack)? Both of these businesses are about talent, education and building software. If we can leverage those, I can be more helpful.
- Will it benefit my network? I’ve worked hard to build a network of investors, mentors, talent – all of whom I channel interesting deals to. If acting as a connector helps my network, that helps.
- Can I work on it, not in it? I love architecting businesses, and putting deals together. But I can’t workin all those projects and companies. I need to be able to create leverage by putting others in place.
- Is there talent involved? I hear a lot of ideas, unless you are a team or are ready to hire a team to move it forward, then I can’t help. Need to find co-founders? Read my blog and the web or come join Launch Pad and meet folks.
- Are you talking or doing? If you just want to jaw about something, I may have a beer with you, but we’re both wasting time. Know that I judge opportunities and how serious people are by how much they’ve moved things forward in between check-ins. If you’re still in the same place, we’re both wasting our time.
- What’s the higher purpose? It could be a social purpose, it could be solving a really interesting problem. I’ve got plenty to do, so I’m only interested if there is a mission I believe in.
Read the full blog post here.