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The post reads as if investors are these unicorn creatures who hold the balance of power - they must be pitched with optimum precision otherwise you'll go no wh

by dotBen 15y ago

The post reads as if investors are these unicorn creatures who hold the balance of power - they must be pitched with optimum precision otherwise you'll go no where. The reality is investors need deal flow and want to learn about new companies, especially associates and non-partners. "if the nicest thing they can say about your company is that it “sounds interesting”, the intro isn’t going to go anywhere." Depends on who's writing "sounds interesting", frankly. If it is a successful founder of a portfolio company or entrepreneur who exited with a nice return for the fund, that might be a great seal of approval. Which leads me to the main reason I still agree with the premise of not asking for introductions - and that is a VC/investor's contact network acts as a gatekeeper for good deals. And so if I'm in that privileged position, I don't want to use up my social capital helping friends with bum-deal companies get introductions. So please don't ask me to. Sadly, that wasn't really mentioned in the article.

danshapiro 15y ago
Re: investors needing deal flow, I think you'll agree that investors need quality deal flow. The goal of the article is to up your company from being just deal flow in to being a part of quality deal flow. I think your last point is that if your company is crap you shouldn't expect an introduction. I agree with that, of course, but "What do do when your company is crap" seemed a little outside the scope of this particular post!
- wnight 15y ago
  You need to be something your friend will find worth mentioning. You can get people to drop your name but if you want them to do so positively it needs to be something they can get behind. Your pitch needs to sounds good, from them, or it won't be worth much. Also, your company needs to be something the investors will believe your friend has an ability to judge or they'll discount the recommendation.

by dotBen 15y ago

danshapiro 15y ago

Re: investors needing deal flow, I think you'll agree that investors need quality deal flow. The goal of the article is to up your company from being just deal flow in to being a part of quality deal flow. I think your last point is that if your company is crap you shouldn't expect an introduction. I agree with that, of course, but "What do do when your company is crap" seemed a little outside the scope of this particular post!

wnight 15y ago
You need to be something your friend will find worth mentioning. You can get people to drop your name but if you want them to do so positively it needs to be something they can get behind. Your pitch needs to sounds good, from them, or it won't be worth much. Also, your company needs to be something the investors will believe your friend has an ability to judge or they'll discount the recommendation.