The VC Hero

The legend tells of a timid Brazilian child named Robinson. He was clumsy at sports and didn't exactly get along with the other kids, who bullied him, and Robinson couldn't put up much of a fight, he was small and weak. Robinson didn't complain to his parents though. They were honest and hard working people, and Robinson feared they had more important matters to attend. Robinson did have something special though: Robinson was smart.

Whereas many other kids needed to find all sorts of tricks and lies in order to pass school, Robinson acted naturally and succeeded. At some point he realized he actually liked it. Numbers, grammar, history, all fit one great picture to his mind's eye. Professors eventually noticed Robinson, and started giving him ever more interesting puzzles. Robinson was still clumsy at sports, but he now had games no one was match to him: sciences and mathematics.

The legend is not clear on how it happened, but at some point, Robinson became attracted to computers. In one version of the story it was Robinson's interest for games that sparked his interest for computers. In another, it was the influence of a family member. Regardless, something about this machine appealed to Robinson's curiosity. Whereas the physical world was limited to every day rules, that machine allowed for a richer playground. One day, in an attempt to configure his machine to look cooler, Robinson figured the machine could be programmed. He learned there were programming languages that people used to control computers. He was not limited to what other had created, he could be a creator himself.

Around age 17 and after instruction from his family and teachers, Robinson had to pick a major to be pursued in 4 or 5 years of college. How to choose though? Getting accepted at a good college wasn't that big a deal for Robinson, but choosing a career? Boy was he lost! Robinson was still interested into math, sciences and computers, and he figured he could be successful by pursuing an engineering career that related to computers. There is a hot market for such professionals out there - a trend that doesn't look like it will go away. Robinson knew we would not be unemployed for at least the next 30 years, if not forever.

Early college was fun: math, programming, algorithms. Robinson was as happy as a pig in the mud. A couple semesters into it though and things got weird. Robinson found that there were subjects outdated by 10 or 20 years, whereas there were interesting subjects left out of his curriculum. Worst of all, most classes were purely tests of patience for the students and paper filling for the professors. Robinson realized that he had to take the duty of learning on his own hands if he wanted to get anywhere - which was something he would hold dearly throughout his life. Plus, it was the 21st century, and he could learn all the good stuff online. He could do better, faster, and cheaper than his mainstream peers. As a final nail in the coffin, Robinson figured it was very easy to get a job as a programmer. Robinson quit college.

Robinson joined a startup company. Startup folks are interested into good programmers, and often not interested in college degrees at all. The company was well funded, and they were on a solid business case, and that brought Robinson hundreds of interesting puzzles for him to work on. His brain was at the edge and he was solving ever harder problems. He went repeatedly over the cycle of finding what seemed an impossible problem, fighting against it, solving it, and then finding an even harder problem. A few years of that and he became impressive. Robinson's programs were running on the largest machines of his time and solving real people's problems. His creations were more real than ever.

The startup could not pay Robinson much, and that was not a big problem for Robinson. The problems he was solving were so interesting that he would do it as long as he could afford his bills, which he could. Plus, Robinson lifestyle was cheap to afford. He would program for not less than 10 hours a day. And when he was not programming, he was studying the interesting stuff he wanted to learn but college would not dare teach him. There were simply so many interesting things out there. Time flew by.

The startup founders did recognize the importance of Robinson's contribution, and they granted him shares of the company. When Robinson accepted, he didn't really understood what were those. "Ok" he said. "Thank you", though he was not sure why. When the company was sold 3 years later, Robinson didn't like the changes the new owners were promoting, but he figured his shares could be traded by money. And lots of it. He traded his shares, and quit his job for a sabbatical year. Robinson was 23 by now.

During his sabbatical year Robinson did all kinds of stuff. He improved his communication skills, he joined a gym, he got into art, philosophy, politics, he learned to shoot. All matters he hadn't the confidence to tackle before, he now did. The once timid and weak boy was now a confident and strong man. Harder to kill and to control. His old bullies better keep their distance.

He traveled the country and the world, he got in contact with family and old friends, he bought his parents the fine house they have always talked about. People from his home town did not understand how that could be. "Had he won the lottery?". "Had he got into politics?". "Is he selling drugs?". The simple folk had no idea how a 23 year old from a simple family could be doing the things Robinson was doing.

Yet, Robinson was not satisfied. He had way too many good ideas inside him, and he had to bring them to existence. Robinson contacted an old peer back from the startup, they met and discussed all that was wrong with the world, and once they were done, they figured they could be business partners, and they figured they could start their own company.

If they really did so, they would make it different from everything else. They would fix the problems they've seen at the startup. They would treat their customers better, they would avoid all the silly mistakes the former startup people got into. They would solve a much larger problem. They would go to history.

And they did. Robinson and his partner had all the experience necessary. Their old employers invested on them, and presented them to more investors. At such a young age, they were incredible technicians and they had solid experience in entrepreneurship. 5 years into it, and they sold their company to a large technology group. Robinson and his business partner were 28, and they were among the richest people in the country, and, to the surprise of many, they did it out of their hard work, diligent decisions, and entrepreneur spirit.

Robinson could not believe what had happened. No one understood how it had happened, and nor did him. Was it really real? Did he really own so much money?

Robinson went for another round of traveling the world. This time, however, he took the fancy road - no more cheap hostels for the young millionaire. The fancy road was fun for a while, but when things settled down, Robinson felt an empty space growing inside him. All the wonders of the world could not fill it.

He now had all he had ever dreamed about, and yet he missed the energy and sense of purpose he once held. Furthermore, despite the tremendous improvement on his life and the life of his close ones, the world hadn't change much. There were still many wrong things with it. His hometown was still mostly poor. Perhaps he could help them with money, but he knew that was not enough. He had to change the basic processes that people applied to their decisions. True wealth and independence would only come to those that acted as diligently as he had.

Robinson knew he had tremendous abilities and energy enough for a few more rounds of awesomeness, and he realized he couldn't simply repeat what he had done before. In order to really boost the impact of the skills he so gratefully received, he had to fund a whole new generation of bright young people. Just as his former employers invested in him, he would invest in the brightest young people he could find. Robinson became a venture capitalist.

Among his businesses, Robinson opened a software school back at his home town. He was mostly surprised when he learned the grand-child of his bully was going to his school. The bully and bullied-turned-millionaire met at a school event and Robinson heard from the bully "you were the real hero all the time. I am sorry I mistreated you, and I hope my grandson learn from your steps".

By the time Robinson died he had helped thousands of young people to find their way through software. To find problems that people had, and then deliver solutions that were better and cheaper than the competition. Tens of his apprentices became entrepreneurs themselves. A handful were successful enough to become VCs themselves. The net effect of his life was tremendous. The world was a much prosper place and generations to come would be grateful to the great deeds of Robinson.