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This is true of all investors not just VCs. There is often a misalignment of interest between investors and startups without the founders ever realizing it. I
by richardjordan 13y ago
This is true of all investors not just VCs. There is often a misalignment of interest between investors and startups without the founders ever realizing it. I've experienced the situation of raising money where one of the investors had incentives so strongly misaligned that they undermined the investments of the other investors and forced the company down a very destructive path - and though for founders and the other investors all was lost, they were a small investor and actually most likely would consider that they had a net positive outcome when their underlying interests were taken into consideration.
Be very, very careful from whom you take money. There really is such a thing as bad money. No founder thinks they're naive - but we all start out if not naive certainly inexperienced in this regard. Always try to build your company so that you can say no to money if you cannot get the best investors you want in your company, because you aren't so desperate for money you'll take it from any source.
Just my hard earned 2c.
- lowglow 13y agoWould you mind blogging about your experiences in an article on http://techendo.co/ http://techendo.co/ ? I think a lot of entrepreneurs don't realize exactly this: > There really is such a thing as bad money.
- richardjordan 13y agoso i need to think about that - i was asked by one of the incubator runners - and a friend of startups everywhere who doesn't need naming here - to do a write up of my experience and i balked mainly because it's hard to do without specifically naming names, and because investors all talk to each other and are always better friends with each other than with entrepreneurs - meaning i'm weak, they're strong, and if i embarrass them i probably end up suffering... that being said it's been a few years and i should probably get over myself and relate the story - it's just that i know for a fact the investor in question is a litigious pain in the ass and has sued others over criticism of their behavior before