The First Check: What Early Belief Can Become

Rev1 Ventures was my first investor in Seamless. And a decade later, they got a 52 times return. That means they made 52 times their money. That return set the record in Columbus for the highest return in Rev1 history outside of a nationwide hospital company.

When I look back on that, I'm proud. Not just because of the number, but because of what the number represents. It represents the first people who believed. It represents a company that had to fight its way forward.

It represents years of risk, pressure, rebuilding, selling, hiring, failing, learning, and figuring it out. That 52 times didn't happen overnight. It started with a demo day, a pitch, a vision, and a founder trying to convince people that Seamless could become something much bigger than it was at the time. Rev1 put money in first, and that matters.

When you're early, nobody really knows what the company will become. There's no perfect proof yet, no massive track record, and no obvious outcome. There's just a founder, a market, a problem, and a whole lot of belief. I'll always have love for Rev1 and any investor willing to bet on entrepreneurs early because the first check is different.

It gives you momentum. It gives you confidence. It tells you, okay, someone else sees this too. But here's the part that makes the story more real.

Later on, when I needed them to follow on, they didn't. At the time, that was hard. There was a lot of risk in the business and a lot of uncertainty. like any founder.

I wanted the people who believed early to keep believing, but that's not always how it works. Sometimes people bet on you at the beginning and sometimes they step back when things get messy. Either way, the founder still has to keep going. That's the job.

You don get to stop because someone else is unsure and you don get to slow down because the next check didn come You have to build through it You have to find the next customer make the next hire close the next deal improve the product rally the team and keep proving the vision one result at a time Looking back now I not bitter about it Honestly, I'm grateful. They took the first risk, we took the rest, and together that early bet turned into a 52 times return. That's a beautiful thing.

The big lesson is this. Early belief matters, but execution is what compounds it. An investor can give you capital. They can give you credibility.

They can open a door, but they cannot build the company for you. The founder has to do that. The team has to do that. The customers have to feel the value and the market has to see the proof.

At some point, the story has to become results. That's true in startups. It's true in sales, and it's true in life. Someone can believe in you early and that belief can help you get started.

but eventually you have to become the proof. You have to keep showing up when the excitement fades. You have to keep improving. When the answer is no, you have to keep moving when the path gets harder than expected.

That's where the return is really built. It is not built a demo day in the announcement or in the photo. It is built in the years. Nobody sees.

So if you're building something right now and it feels risky, uncertain, or lonely, keep going. The early version of the story almost never looks like the final outcome. There will be people who believe in you and there will be people who pass. Some will come in early, some will miss it, and some will support you for a season and then step back.

Don't let that decide your future. Be grateful for every person who bets on you, but don't depend on anyone else's conviction more than your own. Keep building, keep learning, keep selling, keep doing whatever it takes. One day, the thing that looked risky to everyone else might become the return they talk about for the next decade.

And when that happens, you'll realize the first check was important, but the real story was everything you did after it.