6 ms·

Dear VCs: Clean up your websites

28 points by mmastrac 12y ago

sytse 12y ago
Totally agree, why not put on your website what you'll offer to tell people in the first 5 minutes of a conversation.
sagivo 12y ago
A lot of VCs believe that the only way to get them is via referral. this is why they don't care about their site nor want you to contact them this way. These VCs are usually also the same people who talk about how problematic is the closed eco-system in the valley where you have to know someone to make it.
- borski 12y ago
  e.g. http://www.benchmark.com/ http://www.benchmark.com/
thegreatpeter 12y ago
Yeah... http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg/di_05812.jpg http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg/di_05812.jpg
anigbrowl 12y ago
Or what, you won't give us your money? Hahaha. 4. Thine firm slide shall not be a wall of faces. 5. Thine portfolio must be more than graven images. Thou shalt not use archaic language unless thou knowest what thou art doing. It is proper to speak of thine ass, and also to speak of thy donkey, but not of thine donkey. Verily, thou doth sound like a pretentious ass.
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  > Verily, thou doth sound like a pretentious ass. Surely you meant to say "thou dost sound"? EME thy/thine and my/mine make for a more interesting case than old verb conjugations, because present-day confusion about the verb conjugations stems from the fact that they are no longer present in the language. That's also true for thy/thine, but the EME word my/mine still exists as the two separate words "my" and "mine". The fact that modern English draws a distinction between what are in EME two forms of the same word causes no end of confusion in modern speakers.
  - anigbrowl 12y ago
    Thou hast exposed me! I flee! http://www.stgeorgenorth.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/What_hath_God_wrought.81215716.pdf http://www.stgeorgenorth.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Wh... for everyone else.
primitivesuave 12y ago
The best way to get a meeting with a VC is a prototype, and I doubt they are actually trying to encourage people to solicit ideas at them through their website.
- webwright 12y ago
  A prototype doesn't get you a meeting with a VC. It's usually a network thing. Founder X says to (slightly better connected) Founder Y, "I'm raising a round. Who should I talk to?" Assuming Founder Y thinks that an intro to Founder X is something investors would want, they say, "I could intro you to Firm X, Y, Z." Clever fundraisers do this in a systematic when when it's time to raise. They make a spreadsheet of investors that might be a good fit, scour LinkedIn and the firms' portfolio pages to see if they are connected with them, try to see if the firm is a good fit (firm personality, conflicts, check size they write, geographic focus, etc) and then start working on getting warm intros. They try to get as many of these conversations going in parallel as possible, which is freakin' HARD. Which is where this article comes in. It's massively wasteful to have conversations with investors which end quickly with "We don't do seed rounds," or "we only invest in New York" or "We already invested in a company that you compete with", "we don't write checks that big", "you don't fit our investment thesis", etc.
Animats 12y ago
Dear VentureBeat, clean up your web site. Two giant popups in the first 10 seconds.
orliesaurus 12y ago
When I was working as a guest in Passion Capital's co-working space in London, I always loved how clean and transparent their approach was with everything they did. Clear terms, investment options and a lot of their docs is "open source" so people know what to expect when they come around. ..and they're super friendly! Unfortunately that was the only VC/Angel exposure I have gotten so I don't have much to compare it with, but I like to believe many others will be following that trend.

28 points by mmastrac 12y ago

sytse 12y ago

Totally agree, why not put on your website what you'll offer to tell people in the first 5 minutes of a conversation.

A lot of VCs believe that the only way to get them is via referral. this is why they don't care about their site nor want you to contact them this way. These VCs are usually also the same people who talk about how problematic is the closed eco-system in the valley where you have to know someone to make it.

borski 12y ago
e.g. http://www.benchmark.com/ http://www.benchmark.com/

thegreatpeter 12y ago

Yeah... http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg/di_05812.jpg http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg/di_05812.jpg

anigbrowl 12y ago

Or what, you won't give us your money? Hahaha. 4. Thine firm slide shall not be a wall of faces. 5. Thine portfolio must be more than graven images. Thou shalt not use archaic language unless thou knowest what thou art doing. It is proper to speak of thine ass, and also to speak of thy donkey, but not of thine donkey. Verily, thou doth sound like a pretentious ass.

thaumasiotes 12y ago
> Verily, thou doth sound like a pretentious ass. Surely you meant to say "thou dost sound"? EME thy/thine and my/mine make for a more interesting case than old verb conjugations, because present-day confusion about the verb conjugations stems from the fact that they are no longer present in the language. That's also true for thy/thine, but the EME word my/mine still exists as the two separate words "my" and "mine". The fact that modern English draws a distinction between what are in EME two forms of the same word causes no end of confusion in modern speakers.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  Thou hast exposed me! I flee! http://www.stgeorgenorth.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/What_hath_God_wrought.81215716.pdf http://www.stgeorgenorth.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Wh... for everyone else.

primitivesuave 12y ago

The best way to get a meeting with a VC is a prototype, and I doubt they are actually trying to encourage people to solicit ideas at them through their website.

webwright 12y ago
A prototype doesn't get you a meeting with a VC. It's usually a network thing. Founder X says to (slightly better connected) Founder Y, "I'm raising a round. Who should I talk to?" Assuming Founder Y thinks that an intro to Founder X is something investors would want, they say, "I could intro you to Firm X, Y, Z." Clever fundraisers do this in a systematic when when it's time to raise. They make a spreadsheet of investors that might be a good fit, scour LinkedIn and the firms' portfolio pages to see if they are connected with them, try to see if the firm is a good fit (firm personality, conflicts, check size they write, geographic focus, etc) and then start working on getting warm intros. They try to get as many of these conversations going in parallel as possible, which is freakin' HARD. Which is where this article comes in. It's massively wasteful to have conversations with investors which end quickly with "We don't do seed rounds," or "we only invest in New York" or "We already invested in a company that you compete with", "we don't write checks that big", "you don't fit our investment thesis", etc.

Animats 12y ago

Dear VentureBeat, clean up your web site. Two giant popups in the first 10 seconds.

orliesaurus 12y ago

When I was working as a guest in Passion Capital's co-working space in London, I always loved how clean and transparent their approach was with everything they did. Clear terms, investment options and a lot of their docs is "open source" so people know what to expect when they come around. ..and they're super friendly! Unfortunately that was the only VC/Angel exposure I have gotten so I don't have much to compare it with, but I like to believe many others will be following that trend.