Build your team early. In our last post, we covered normal deal terms that affect how ownership is divided and risk shared. This time, let’s talk about dividing up the responsibility for work and success.

No matter how smart, committed, persistent, motivated, talented, indomitable and attractive you may believe yourself to be, no one can do it all. And even if you could – what if you get hit by a bus? VC’s are said to be risk takers, but in a larger sense they are risk managers. Risk is a given in start-ups and high-tech – it’s just table stakes. It’s how the VC manages the inevitable risk that matters.

One way they manage risk is by investing in a portfolio or “team” of companies. Before there was such a thing as modern portfolio theory – even squirrels knew it wasn’t smart to put all your acorns in one tree. Pretty good for a rodent with a knack for getting run over because it can’t make up its mind which way to run…but I digress.

So if you are a VC and you like the product, the market, the timing and the “space” as they like to call it – you really don’t want to put all your chips on Red 21. Not even Reggie Jackson could win the World Series alone. Successful companies are companies first, then they are successful. Any endeavor that progresses beyond the “Eureka” moment in the shower quickly becomes a multi-dimensional enterprise.