I wanted to own the business world at one point in my life.

I had dreams of high finance. Exhausting international travel, working all-night with counsel on negotiations, and last minute deals for hundreds of millions of dollars.

We would finally agree to a deal, and our stock price would go crazy. I would loosen my tie in a hotel lobby in Zurich or Dubai and look forward to my December bonus.

The team would fly all night back to New York on the company jet.

To be honest, I have no idea what I was thinking. That sounds awful now. I think I was just young and naive.

Traveling, without my entire family, has zero appeal to me.

And who wants to need to woo an investor?

Reading a book at home with the coffee pot and fire going sounds infinitely better.

The email connection usually kicked off an introductory phone call between me and the investor. If that call went well, they’d ask when I would next be in “the Valley,” a.k.a. Silicon Valley. My 2009 fundraising attempt dictated no fewer than four separate trips to that valley, most with four or more separate meetings spread over a few days. I’m most comfortable eating homemade cookies and watching the Die Hard canon while my wife shouts advice to the characters on-screen. This was not my world.

-Rand Fishkin, Lost And Founder