Ask a founder or investor whether their reputation belongs on the same list of assets as their cash, equity or portfolio, and most will hesitate.
It feels like the wrong category. Too soft. Too hard to measure.
But here is the harder question underneath it: if reputation already determines who gets the call, who gets the introduction, and who gets backed before the formal process even begins – at what point does it stop being a soft factor and start being something that should be managed as deliberately as everything else on the balance sheet?