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> One last point on this, almost any VC will take a meeting with almost any entrepreneur. As someone who was trying desperately to raise money in 2008 (from th

> One last point on this, almost any VC will take a meeting with almost any entrepreneur. As someone who was trying desperately to raise money in 2008 (from the Midwest, no less), just wanted to note that this is false. I contacted several dozen VCs and literally zero were interested in hearing a pitch. This was for a company that had thousands of users and won a $50k business plan competition, so it's not like we were a joke company on the "almost any entrepreneur" spectrum. Sure, it was 2008, and sure, we were nowhere near Sand Hill Road, but I wouldn't want people getting the impression that it's trivial for non-YC companies to get in the room with VCs anytime they please. It's not.

abat 13y ago
You can't directly contact VCs unless they already know you, you need an introduction from someone on their radar. Notice the company in the article refers to meetings via introductions as "outbound." VC's will at least meet with most companies if they play their game. Think of the introduction game as a captcha on the company level.
- deleted 13y ago
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- lampington 13y ago
  +1 to that. If you want intros to VCs then identify target companies, then mine LinkedIn to find out who you know who knows people there. If you're not just starting out in your career, you're likely to find a bunch of avenues. And they'll probably lead to meetings. This would have been harder in 2008, of course, so I understand that it wouldn't have worked for the GP. But for people starting now it should work. OTOH as the OP says, the chances of getting funded by anyone you meet that way are vanishingly small. But if you do truly impress anyone, they are quite likely to introduce you to other people. And those people can wind up being either investors or introducers to investors. Think of the LinkedIn mining as a way of bootstrapping your VC network.
argonaut 13y ago
It was 2008 and you were in the Midwest. That pretty clearly explains why, I think.

abat 13y ago

You can't directly contact VCs unless they already know you, you need an introduction from someone on their radar. Notice the company in the article refers to meetings via introductions as "outbound." VC's will at least meet with most companies if they play their game. Think of the introduction game as a captcha on the company level.

deleted 13y ago
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lampington 13y ago
+1 to that. If you want intros to VCs then identify target companies, then mine LinkedIn to find out who you know who knows people there. If you're not just starting out in your career, you're likely to find a bunch of avenues. And they'll probably lead to meetings. This would have been harder in 2008, of course, so I understand that it wouldn't have worked for the GP. But for people starting now it should work. OTOH as the OP says, the chances of getting funded by anyone you meet that way are vanishingly small. But if you do truly impress anyone, they are quite likely to introduce you to other people. And those people can wind up being either investors or introducers to investors. Think of the LinkedIn mining as a way of bootstrapping your VC network.

argonaut 13y ago

It was 2008 and you were in the Midwest. That pretty clearly explains why, I think.