Investor Stories 416: Lessons Learned (Niehenke, York, Hsieh)

This episode of TFR is brought to you by Ramp, the spend management platform we use here at TFR. They're offering listeners a $150 just to take a demo. We've never had an offer quite like this. Claim your $150 before this offer is gone at our partner link, ramp.com/partner/tfr. And this episode of TFR is brought to you by the American Arbitration Association, where smart startups and investors turn to for fast, efficient, and cost effective dispute resolution. Visit adr.org/tfr to learn more. Welcome to the podcast about venture capital, where investors and founders alike can learn how VCs make decisions and reach conviction. Your host is Nick Moran, and this is the full ratchet. Welcome back to TFR. On today's special segment, we ask guests to tell the most important lesson that they've learned in their career. Here's the segment called lessons learned. On today's special segment, we have Alex Nihanky of Scale. What's the biggest mistake you've made, and what's the story behind it? I've made so many mistakes. I have just been humbled by the the the idiot calls that I've had on on companies, and I I've had my CEOs tell me, like, my feedback at board meetings was was crap, and I've had my partners tell me the way that I presented a a deal was arrogant. And I've had employees come to me and say, hey, the way that I've treated them was jerky. And and I've had CEOs tell me, like, hey, look, you know, you you called on me, and and you didn't we weren't high energy in the meeting, and so I went with another investor. I try to listen to all that, and I try to perpetually improve, and I try to get better. I'm not perfect. I don't think anybody is. But I I do seek out that that feedback, and I I I as painful as it is, I try to be susceptible to it. Somebody early in my career, you know, gave me the advice that, you know, if you stop listening to feedback, people are gonna stop giving you feedback. And so I think that's that's kinda like that lesson in there for me. And I I say, like, the thing that that that I have probably found most consistently that I'm I'm trying to work on is is focus. It's so easy to get distracted, maybe particularly in the venture industry. And so my my mantra for the for the past few years, I think it's gonna continue to be is, like, focus on the things that matter and and be prepared and be present when you're doing the right things because you only have a couple big decisions in the venture business that you're making every year. And if you're if you're distracted that day because your kid was a brat on the way to school and you weren't able to remove that out of your head or, you know, you didn't get …