Most should not be, particularly if you care about good stewardship for your startup. Venture funds get issued a billion dollars that they must commit all of i

Most should not be, particularly if you care about good stewardship for your startup. Venture funds get issued a billion dollars that they must commit all of in one quarter. They only get a few proposals that look like they will win, but must back 10x those. So, they back the rest anyway, but arrange to reap the money put into them: the investors don't mind losing it, but it seems a shame to waste it all. They make that other 90% hire cronies as C execs (earning or returning favors), who then make the startup spend the venture money where venture-fund people can profit. This often means spending it at companies they are also invested in. (Oracle used to be a favorite: every startup needs an Enterprise license, right?) But there are a million ways to drain a startup, once your hooks are in it. Mostly the only people a venture fund needs to impress are investors, who are really only interested in what happens to the 10%. Most founders are not sophisticated enough to check how unscrupulous a venture fund they court will be, and anyway often cannot be choosy enough. If you have a startup being courted by venture funds, make a point of talking to founders they (apparently) backed who didn't make round 3, or 5. And, never, ever give one leverage to control your spending. If you need to court them, instead, heaven help you. I don't know if there is any place where founders are supposed to learn all this. Probably most learn by having their first idea burned from under them. I particularly don't know of a way to ensure you will be in the 10% chosen to succeed.