Why Do Founders Have to Chew Glass?

Bilal Zuberi says founders chew glass because the path is hard and there is no easy way through it. Founders go through fire, the way glass is molded in fire into beautiful objects. From the outside the work looks glamorous.

His children named Red Glass after his glasses when he could not come up with a name. The options he tried felt like venture capital gobbledygook, and friends told him the name was pretty cool. Red means passion and courage, and red is the color of good luck in Asian cultures. Glass means transparency and clarity, values he wants for himself and for the fund.

He never calls himself a founder of companies he only invested in early. Investors do that all the time. Some have not founded a single company, yet they claim they are founders of eight companies. Being an early investor does not make someone a founder. He calls such a person a founding investor only as a maybe. The founders chew glass, and the work is not easy.