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Re the "know how to hustle" thing - building a successful business takes a lot of "hustle". If someone succeeds at that, they've proven that they can do it. Th

Re the "know how to hustle" thing - building a successful business takes a lot of "hustle". If someone succeeds at that, they've proven that they can do it. The notion that someone needs to meet some invisible bar of proof beyond building a successful company is - to me - yet another symptom of the damage SV has inflicted on the minds of a generation of technically inclined enterpreneurs.

beambot 9y ago
Think about how many emails you get. Now imagine yourself in a position where everyone knows you invest big money on a regular basis, and imagine how many orders of magnitude more emails you'd get. Investors trust people in their Network not to waste their time (everyone's most precious asset). It's a sane filter... You just may not empathize.
evrydayhustling 9y ago
Which successful business are you talking about? OP's business is clearly promising, but if it needs $2M to keep going, success is clearly still ahead. For LPs trusting a VC with their cash, successful means the company growing 10x in the next seven years. That VC's conviction that the ability to hustle is between where OP is and 10x is something you could disagree about, but I'd say it's somewhat less arbitrary than forking over $2M at just the data given. Maybe different financing tools would allow for different definitions of success, and different guesses about what the OP needs to get there. I'd like to see someone weigh in on debt financing options, which I don't know enough about. But nobody is abusing young minds here.
- a13n 9y ago
  10x? At seed stage? Try 1000x.
fanzhang 9y ago
I bet that the "know how to hustle" is a backwards theoretical story. In reality VCs just empirically find cold calls to be much worse because it's diluted down with a lot of really random people. If that's the case that'd be unfortunate because a mindset change wouldn't be sufficient to reverse the trend.
callmeed 9y ago
If you don't like that word, use persistent, relentless, scrappy, or whatever. It's not an invisible bar beyond something. It's a trait that increases your odds of success. Don't put words in my mouth

beambot 9y ago

Think about how many emails you get. Now imagine yourself in a position where everyone knows you invest big money on a regular basis, and imagine how many orders of magnitude more emails you'd get. Investors trust people in their Network not to waste their time (everyone's most precious asset). It's a sane filter... You just may not empathize.

evrydayhustling 9y ago

Which successful business are you talking about? OP's business is clearly promising, but if it needs $2M to keep going, success is clearly still ahead. For LPs trusting a VC with their cash, successful means the company growing 10x in the next seven years. That VC's conviction that the ability to hustle is between where OP is and 10x is something you could disagree about, but I'd say it's somewhat less arbitrary than forking over $2M at just the data given. Maybe different financing tools would allow for different definitions of success, and different guesses about what the OP needs to get there. I'd like to see someone weigh in on debt financing options, which I don't know enough about. But nobody is abusing young minds here.

a13n 9y ago
10x? At seed stage? Try 1000x.

fanzhang 9y ago

I bet that the "know how to hustle" is a backwards theoretical story. In reality VCs just empirically find cold calls to be much worse because it's diluted down with a lot of really random people. If that's the case that'd be unfortunate because a mindset change wouldn't be sufficient to reverse the trend.

callmeed 9y ago

If you don't like that word, use persistent, relentless, scrappy, or whatever. It's not an invisible bar beyond something. It's a trait that increases your odds of success. Don't put words in my mouth