Today being boss’s day, I thought I would write a bit about the guys who “discovered” and funded The Point, Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell. They are my bosses, in the sense that they could at any time and for any reason throw me to the curb. At least I think that’s true — they’re kind enough or thoughtful enough not to dwell on such matters.

Eric and Brad, who are friends from college at the University of Michigan, are wildly successful serial entrepreneurs. Before we started The Point, they were already operating three rapidly growing companies: InnerWorkings, Echo, and MediaBank.

I met Eric when I joined InnerWorkings in 2006, for what was supposed to be a short career as a software developer before I entered public policy school that fall. I got to know Eric, and for some reason, he started letting me bounce my stupid ideas off of him. He was skeptical of my monkey rental service, Monkey for a Week. He completely dismissed “Understandimation,” my self-help philosophy franchise(and the accompanying Understandimator toolkit). He liked Policy Tree, but didn’t see a business model. I wasn’t really pitching him these things — he was involved in three companies and I never imagined he would start a fourth. I just enjoy talking to people who think big, and Eric fit the bill.

As planned, that fall I left InnerWorkings to start school. In December, when I had the idea that would become The Point, I tried to get in touch with Eric. He called a week later, catching me in between classes. I rambled through a scattered description of the idea, to which he responded by offering — to my great shock — to build a company around the idea (I found out later that he had already heard my pitch from a mutual friend, so his behavior wasn’t as impetuous as it seemed). Over the next week, in between studying for finals, I put together the outline of a business plan and we made a deal. After finals, I would leave school to start The Point.

Well-intentioned friends warned me to be careful about taking money. There are horror stories all over the Web of naive entrepreneurs accepting funding only to watch the investors lay waste to their vision. My experience with Eric and Brad has been the exact opposite. They let me pick the team I wanted. They gave us the support to build the product we wanted. They took care of all the things we didn’t want to deal with — money, administration, networking — and let us focus on our vision. They have been endlessly patient while I learn about business and management.

Most importantly, we share a vision about The Point. We were all literally compelled by the idea. None of us were looking for something to do with our lives, but we all felt that The Point demanded our attention.

I can’t make a sweeping recommendation as to whether entrepreneurs should always accept funding, but I can’t say enough good things about my experience.

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