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You've never heard of brokers that will go from one VC to another trying to find funding for a company That is minor league C-lister stuff that only people who
by starkfist 17y ago
You've never heard of brokers that will go from one VC to another trying to find funding for a company
That is minor league C-lister stuff that only people who read blogs like ReadWriteWeb get involved with. It's the tech world equivalent of paying to be in a modeling agency.
- jacquesm 17y agoRaising funding is hard work, especially if you do not know the circuit and are busy keeping your start-up afloat. To have someone that will take the 'leg work' out of it in return for a small percentage on a no-cure-no-pay basis can be very good. People like that usually have a reputation to protect, they'll pre-screen the start-ups they represent and they'll do their best to bug their VC network only with those start-ups that they themselves deem worthy of funding. Y combinator is 'minor league', we're not talking 5 to 15K here, but roughly up to a million or so. Paying to be in a modeling agency is paying up-front, this is a construction where both parties win if a deal can be made. There are sleazy variations on this scheme where the broker demands exclusivity or other tactics to gain control of the start-up based on their inexperience but that's definitely not all of them.
- starkfist 17y agoI spent 15 years in Silicon Valley startup scene and respectfully disagree. Anyone advertising themselves as a VC matchmaker for a fee is looking for chumps. The good VCs have their own people on staff whose job is to go drinking with the cool startup kids. (they are usually classified as an EIR)