Coombs’ Law — Boulder Ventures Ltd.

*Doug Coombs, guiding in Valdez in the 80’s, sets off a good one. Photo: Ace Kvale*

Skiers live for bluebird powder days with our family and friends. But not every day is perfect and what makes us true skiers is not how we perform when conditions are favorable, but when things kinda suck.

No one understood this better than the Mountain Guide and Icon of extreme skiing, Doug Coombs. Doug grew up in New England learning to ski in rugged conditions at Vermont and New Hampshire resorts before migrating west to Jackson Hole. In the early 1980’s, he skied and guided most of the big lines in the Tetons, before Patrol famously kicked him off the hill for ignoring their ropes. Coombs then moved to Valdez, Alaska, where he pioneered heliskiing in the Chugach Mountains through the 90s. Until his death in La Grave, France in 2006, Coombs was the premier steep skier of his generation.

According to Coombs "there are no bad ski conditions, only bad skiers."

In teaching our children how to ski, "Coombs Law" became a family mantra. Learning to accept and excel at skiing hard pack, wind crust, exposed rocks, icy slopes, breakable crust, shallow base and all the other sub-optimal conditions is something we all strive for. We learn to focus on the things we can control (effort, attitude, toughness, practice, ability, fitness and preparation), rather than worrying about things we cannot.

Venture capitalists must be comfortable in all conditions as well. We don't control interest rates, regulatory environments, politics, valuation excesses, and other macro effects. But we get to choose the serial entrepreneurs we back, the markets we invest in, and the problems we elect to solve for. If we are right about the market and right about the people, we usually make money even in choppy conditions.

At Boulder Ventures, we have a thirty-year track record of generating distributions to our investors in all kinds of markets. This distinguishes us from many of our peers.

Coombs’ Law.