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"This is what VC's care about: A) traffic B) what other VC's think of you C) the quality of your team" I had to stop reading. What about uuhmm...revenue?

brett 20y ago
The point he was making there was that while VC's claim team quality is the highest priority, it's not (and most VC's are unable to accurately evaluate team quality anyways). Regardless: Are you claiming that all VC funded companies have revenue at the time of funding? To my knowledge VCs fund many pre-revenue companies. That would indicate that at least for those deals revenue was not an important factor. A lot of laundromats have more revenue than many early stage startups and VCs aren't knocking on their doors.
- elialfordj 20y ago
  Do all VC funded startups have traffic? Do all VC funded Startups have a reputation among VCs? I was obviously not making a statement about "all" VC funded companies. If we're talking about what is important to venture capitalists when evaluating startups seeking early stage financing, I think revenue should have been a good candidate for that short list of qualities. If you can show in a small test market that your model is capable of generating revenue, and your model is scalable, this is going to look pretty appealing to your prospective financier. Not every startup involves some abstract technical concept, it is possible to build a company with revenues from the start.
  - brett 20y ago
    That's a pretty good point. Some VC funded startups (namely ones that have not launched) probably have less traffic than some laundromats and that clearly does not mean traffic is not important. My guess is that buzz amongst VC firms is more of a uniform prerequisite, but point well taken. Ultimately this list is entirely empirical. Paul's list seems to jive with other sources I've read/heard but, admittedly, I know relatively little about VC deals. If you've got examples where revenue was a big factor early on I would be curious to hear about them.

brett 20y ago

The point he was making there was that while VC's claim team quality is the highest priority, it's not (and most VC's are unable to accurately evaluate team quality anyways). Regardless: Are you claiming that all VC funded companies have revenue at the time of funding? To my knowledge VCs fund many pre-revenue companies. That would indicate that at least for those deals revenue was not an important factor. A lot of laundromats have more revenue than many early stage startups and VCs aren't knocking on their doors.

elialfordj 20y ago
Do all VC funded startups have traffic? Do all VC funded Startups have a reputation among VCs? I was obviously not making a statement about "all" VC funded companies. If we're talking about what is important to venture capitalists when evaluating startups seeking early stage financing, I think revenue should have been a good candidate for that short list of qualities. If you can show in a small test market that your model is capable of generating revenue, and your model is scalable, this is going to look pretty appealing to your prospective financier. Not every startup involves some abstract technical concept, it is possible to build a company with revenues from the start.
- brett 20y ago
  That's a pretty good point. Some VC funded startups (namely ones that have not launched) probably have less traffic than some laundromats and that clearly does not mean traffic is not important. My guess is that buzz amongst VC firms is more of a uniform prerequisite, but point well taken. Ultimately this list is entirely empirical. Paul's list seems to jive with other sources I've read/heard but, admittedly, I know relatively little about VC deals. If you've got examples where revenue was a big factor early on I would be curious to hear about them.