"I bet on jockeys, not horses," Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the MIT Media Laboratory and an active angel investor, once told me. He was describing his strategy of placing more trust in the people who run a company than in its products and business plan, a strategy that reflects the common reality that a startup's initial plan often fails, for any number of reasons. The product may work well but not attract a single sale, or as is often the case in high tech, the product development may not go anywhere near as well as was hoped. A founder's ability to face down failure and rebound is a critical consideration for any investor, and virtually every successful entrepreneur has a near-death tale or two to tell. (I have several.) Conjuring up a winning Plan B when the fan is blowing brown requires a certain ineffable combination of decisiveness, perseverance, unconventionality, and plain old-fashioned luck.

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