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as they should have tried to raise from high quality individuals first.....got a check from Andreessen Horowitz and the CTO of LinkedIn Exactly the point the p

as they should have tried to raise from high quality individuals first.....got a check from Andreessen Horowitz and the CTO of LinkedIn Exactly the point the parent was making. Those are big time contacts. Somebody outside of the valley now has a chance to get $1MM(!!!!) of seed money for their idea without having to relocate and schmooze and network. I'm as big a proponent of real world social skills as anyone, but this removes a significant barrier to entry for a lot of would be entrepreneurs. Also, wouldn't a large number of crowdfunders indicate a better product-market fit?

lettergram 9y ago
I actually am torn on the subject. I'm not a VC, but I do invest heavily and regularly track various companies. That being said, I recognize my opinion might mean little, but... Product-market fit is definitely a good sign a company is on the right track in terms of product. However, 99% of what makes a company successful is execution. A crowd funded campaign on Kickstarter doesn't need to even be possible[1] or it can be completely silly [2]. It doesn't need to show a 100x growth, nor does it need to exist. On the other hand a VC will do vetting, to make sure the team is right to execute to solve a problem. Let's put it this way: * A VC invests in a team to solve a problem * Crowdfunding invests in a product/idea A VC is a much stronger signal. [1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gnut/kickstarter-open-source-death-star?ref=discovery https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gnut/kickstarter-open-s... [2] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/exploding-kittens https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/exploding-kitte...
- angersock 9y ago
  > A VC is a much stronger signal. Sure, like all the folks that were in on Color and Clinkle, right?
- mindcrime 9y ago
  A VC is a much stronger signal. Well, VC's think so anyway. Given the success rate of VC funds, I'm not sure that's actually true at all.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  > * Crowdfunding invests in a product/idea I would expand this to state that crowdfunding would fund product/idea but not product/idea fit with market.
- watwut 9y ago
  I dunno, the vetting of SV teams leads to pretty strange signaling behaviour of wannabe startups.

lettergram 9y ago

I actually am torn on the subject. I'm not a VC, but I do invest heavily and regularly track various companies. That being said, I recognize my opinion might mean little, but... Product-market fit is definitely a good sign a company is on the right track in terms of product. However, 99% of what makes a company successful is execution. A crowd funded campaign on Kickstarter doesn't need to even be possible[1] or it can be completely silly [2]. It doesn't need to show a 100x growth, nor does it need to exist. On the other hand a VC will do vetting, to make sure the team is right to execute to solve a problem. Let's put it this way: * A VC invests in a team to solve a problem * Crowdfunding invests in a product/idea A VC is a much stronger signal. [1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gnut/kickstarter-open-source-death-star?ref=discovery https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gnut/kickstarter-open-s... [2] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/exploding-kittens https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/exploding-kitte...

angersock 9y ago
> A VC is a much stronger signal. Sure, like all the folks that were in on Color and Clinkle, right?
mindcrime 9y ago
A VC is a much stronger signal. Well, VC's think so anyway. Given the success rate of VC funds, I'm not sure that's actually true at all.
hkmurakami 9y ago
> * Crowdfunding invests in a product/idea I would expand this to state that crowdfunding would fund product/idea but not product/idea fit with market.
watwut 9y ago
I dunno, the vetting of SV teams leads to pretty strange signaling behaviour of wannabe startups.