Partnering with founders is the art of seeing what someone else is dreaming and placing that dream into a world constructed in your own mind — turning it over and working to make it fit — and hoping to feel the hairs stand up as the roller coaster dives down the back side of the tracks and a new universe of possibility comes into focus because a founder’s dream just shattered my model of how things will be.

Forget finding the next Blue Apron, even that most basic moment of connection, when I clearly see what is in a founder’s heart and know how to maximize their impact as CEO is infrequent. Sometimes I think it is coming, we are going up and up but the clicking of the ratchet never stops and the ride ends with no whoosh.

What could I have done to get to the other side? I wanted to let gravity take over and get that rush, but it didn’t happen. How could I have asked better questions? What could I have read to help me see the dream more clearly? Could I have listened better? Could I have left more silence for the founder to fill?

I don’t know. But, I do know it is a missed opportunity and I am going to work on it.