5 ms·

The First VC Meeting (2009)

53 points by gtabx 10y ago

mdda 10y ago
Since there's no link at the of Part 5 to part 6: Part 6 : https://bothsidesofthetable.com/sorry-guys-it-s-the-size-of-the-wave-not-the-motion-of-the-ocean-22d0ebf1954e https://bothsidesofthetable.com/sorry-guys-it-s-the-size-of-... Part 6cont : https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitfalls-in-market-sizing-part-6-continued-59e2d3222013 https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitfalls-in-market-sizing-pa... Part 7? : https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitching-a-vc-dealing-with-competition-5c34bcf4151 https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitching-a-vc-dealing-with-c... ... and then the numbering / search functionality seems to hit a dead-end. Pointers welcome...
ikeboy 10y ago
> Maybe you’re not a tech-head but you’ve hired a 23 year old from Harvard with a 1,600 SAT who’s your CTO (another real world example I heard just this week!) Is it normal to mention SAT scores in an investor meeting?
- apsec112 10y ago
  No. At least, I've never heard of it happening, and I'm pretty sure the investors I've met would think it was silly.
  - webtechgal 10y ago
    Many years ago, my ex-boss was in an informal pitch meeting with a very prominent tech lady (who is/was a limited partner at a major SV VC fund as well as an angel investor) and he mentioned that he had signed up an experienced Harvard MBA as the CFO and her reaction was along the line of 'Well, so what?'.
mountaineer22 10y ago
This is 7 years old.
- ci5er 10y ago
  Surely it is about this VCs personal preferences, but has the dynamic markedly changed in that time? My favorite high-tech product marketing book was written in the 1980s...
  - TAForObvReasons 10y ago
    > My favorite high-tech product marketing book was written in the 1980s... What book are you referring to?
    - ci5er 10y ago
      https://www.amazon.com/Marketing-High-Technology-William-Davidow-ebook/dp/B001D1YCU4 https://www.amazon.com/Marketing-High-Technology-William-Dav... Now, granted, this is about technology products as opposed to consumer facing apps: think Intel vs. Motorola CPUs back in the day or the various TI-vs-everyone DSP tangles. It's still very applicable to any number of technologies in robotics, energy and even things like MRIs.
jacques_chester 10y ago
I appreciate that Mark Suster is upfront in saying he's only interested in the correct pedigree. Even the "wrong" pedigree is a recognisable pedigree. The rest of us don't exist. (Edit: a better phrasing might be "the rest of us are not found in his taxonomy, possibly because it would muddle the discussion") Which, given his position, is understandable. VCs can lean on brutally inefficient filters, since they get so many opportunities to recover from lossy rejections. And on the flipside, they can't afford to drown in lossy acceptances. C'est la vie.
- blfr 10y ago
  Mark Suster is upfront in saying he's only interested in the correct pedigree It doesn't seem to be true. Especially considering this is a long series of posts covering the pedigree first but then also the pitch, presentation, demo, and so on.
  - jacques_chester 10y ago
    Having gone through them, yes, the full series greatly attenuates the effect. But I still think there was an effect to be attenuated.
- w1ntermute 10y ago
  If you don't have the pedigree, go get it. Become that Stanford masters student, or go work at Google or Facebook for a few years. Then when dingbat investors like Suster ask for pedigree, just namedrop Google. Of course, keep in mind that Suster himself doesn't have the right pedigree (he studied econ at UCSD and got an MBA from Chicago). Then again, maybe that's why he has a shitty portfolio (Upfront is certainly no Sequoia).
  - jacques_chester 10y ago
    > If you don't have the pedigree, go get it. I am fortunate to be in a position where I can. But on the whole, it is probably cheaper (in time, money and stress) to find different investors than to go to Stanford.
akavi 10y ago
As somebody whose bio checks all the boxes Suster mentions, but without any particular drive or ambition, it seems like I could do cracking business renting myself out to real entrepreneurs as a face for these pitch meetings... You hear people talking about colleges as nothing but signalling mechanisms, but holy shit, this article's ridiculous.
webtechgal 10y ago
From Part 5 (Doing a demo): > The stories should roll off your tongue since you’ve done it hundreds of times... If I were a VC (not that it is likely to ever happen), and if your stories rolled off your tongue, it would set off some alarm bells ringing for me. If the stories roll so smoothly, just how many times have you told them before (apparently, without success)?
trestles 10y ago
Kinda an obvious post; the name dropping of schools is a bit obnoxious in my opinion esp since the current highest valued private company is run by a UCLA dropout - something Suster would obviously have loved to invest in after the fact. I find the exceptionally smart "startup" people are very knowledgable about their competition and their companies relation to them and can project out to the future.

53 points by gtabx 10y ago

mdda 10y ago

Since there's no link at the of Part 5 to part 6: Part 6 : https://bothsidesofthetable.com/sorry-guys-it-s-the-size-of-the-wave-not-the-motion-of-the-ocean-22d0ebf1954e https://bothsidesofthetable.com/sorry-guys-it-s-the-size-of-... Part 6cont : https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitfalls-in-market-sizing-part-6-continued-59e2d3222013 https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitfalls-in-market-sizing-pa... Part 7? : https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitching-a-vc-dealing-with-competition-5c34bcf4151 https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitching-a-vc-dealing-with-c... ... and then the numbering / search functionality seems to hit a dead-end. Pointers welcome...

ikeboy 10y ago

> Maybe you’re not a tech-head but you’ve hired a 23 year old from Harvard with a 1,600 SAT who’s your CTO (another real world example I heard just this week!) Is it normal to mention SAT scores in an investor meeting?

apsec112 10y ago
No. At least, I've never heard of it happening, and I'm pretty sure the investors I've met would think it was silly.
- webtechgal 10y ago
  Many years ago, my ex-boss was in an informal pitch meeting with a very prominent tech lady (who is/was a limited partner at a major SV VC fund as well as an angel investor) and he mentioned that he had signed up an experienced Harvard MBA as the CFO and her reaction was along the line of 'Well, so what?'.

mountaineer22 10y ago

This is 7 years old.

ci5er 10y ago
Surely it is about this VCs personal preferences, but has the dynamic markedly changed in that time? My favorite high-tech product marketing book was written in the 1980s...
- TAForObvReasons 10y ago
  > My favorite high-tech product marketing book was written in the 1980s... What book are you referring to?
  - ci5er 10y ago
    https://www.amazon.com/Marketing-High-Technology-William-Davidow-ebook/dp/B001D1YCU4 https://www.amazon.com/Marketing-High-Technology-William-Dav... Now, granted, this is about technology products as opposed to consumer facing apps: think Intel vs. Motorola CPUs back in the day or the various TI-vs-everyone DSP tangles. It's still very applicable to any number of technologies in robotics, energy and even things like MRIs.

jacques_chester 10y ago

I appreciate that Mark Suster is upfront in saying he's only interested in the correct pedigree. Even the "wrong" pedigree is a recognisable pedigree. The rest of us don't exist. (Edit: a better phrasing might be "the rest of us are not found in his taxonomy, possibly because it would muddle the discussion") Which, given his position, is understandable. VCs can lean on brutally inefficient filters, since they get so many opportunities to recover from lossy rejections. And on the flipside, they can't afford to drown in lossy acceptances. C'est la vie.

blfr 10y ago
Mark Suster is upfront in saying he's only interested in the correct pedigree It doesn't seem to be true. Especially considering this is a long series of posts covering the pedigree first but then also the pitch, presentation, demo, and so on.
- jacques_chester 10y ago
  Having gone through them, yes, the full series greatly attenuates the effect. But I still think there was an effect to be attenuated.
w1ntermute 10y ago
If you don't have the pedigree, go get it. Become that Stanford masters student, or go work at Google or Facebook for a few years. Then when dingbat investors like Suster ask for pedigree, just namedrop Google. Of course, keep in mind that Suster himself doesn't have the right pedigree (he studied econ at UCSD and got an MBA from Chicago). Then again, maybe that's why he has a shitty portfolio (Upfront is certainly no Sequoia).
- jacques_chester 10y ago
  > If you don't have the pedigree, go get it. I am fortunate to be in a position where I can. But on the whole, it is probably cheaper (in time, money and stress) to find different investors than to go to Stanford.

akavi 10y ago

As somebody whose bio checks all the boxes Suster mentions, but without any particular drive or ambition, it seems like I could do cracking business renting myself out to real entrepreneurs as a face for these pitch meetings... You hear people talking about colleges as nothing but signalling mechanisms, but holy shit, this article's ridiculous.

webtechgal 10y ago

From Part 5 (Doing a demo): > The stories should roll off your tongue since you’ve done it hundreds of times... If I were a VC (not that it is likely to ever happen), and if your stories rolled off your tongue, it would set off some alarm bells ringing for me. If the stories roll so smoothly, just how many times have you told them before (apparently, without success)?

trestles 10y ago

Kinda an obvious post; the name dropping of schools is a bit obnoxious in my opinion esp since the current highest valued private company is run by a UCLA dropout - something Suster would obviously have loved to invest in after the fact. I find the exceptionally smart "startup" people are very knowledgable about their competition and their companies relation to them and can project out to the future.