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Let's look at what a VC is trying to accomplish here. - They don't want to invest for reason {X}. Could be as trivial as someone not liking the founder or they
by sriramk 14y ago
Let's look at what a VC is trying to accomplish here.
- They don't want to invest for reason {X}. Could be as trivial as someone not liking the founder or they could genuinely think they don't know whether the company will do well.
- They don't want to tell the founders what they really think. Mostly because they want to hold open the option in case they are proven wrong as often happens. As much as founders say they like honest replies, I've seen so many founders say "VC X said he doesn't want to invest in us because he disagrees with us on {reason}- I'm going to prove that moron so wrong".
- They want to help out the founder with a couple of intros so that the founder doesn't feel like he got nothing from them in return.
The boilerplate/corporate B.S language? Terrible and everyone could easily do better. But there's no easy to tell someone you don't believe in something they're putting their heart and soul into.
YC has the nicest rejection mails of all of VC-land and I've still seen YC-rejects get really angry and make it their life's work to prove pg wrong.
- eric_bullington 14y agoAre you sure these YC-rejects are building their companies just to prove pg wrong? They are probably just pursuing their dream, which is what led them to apply to YC to begin with. If they succeed, proving YC wrong is just a nice side-effect for them (see: http://lightsailenergy.com/ http://lightsailenergy.com/ and others).
- sriramk 14y agoEither way, they hold a hostility towards YC ( or anyone who rejects them) which is what such 'soft letdowns' are trying to mitigate.
- DaniFong 14y agoI think YC is great.
- fgdsfgds 14y agoBeen rejected twice. Although I know is irrational to get angry I would be lying if part of me doesn't want to succeed to shove it on PG's face.
- penguat 14y agoActually, having something that matters to you held back by someone's rejection is exactly the sort of thing I'd expect to make a person angry. In most situations it will lead to the rejectee pushing harder for what they want to do - likely a winning strategy in simpler situations.