I loved the bit in the post about "VCs cold calling and then rejecting the next day." When I was CTO/Co-Founder full time, I had one VC cold-call and pursue me unsolicited...and then he acted like I owed him a bunch of data and acted like I wasn't taking "the opportunity [to speak with him]" seriously. It seemed he just wanted competitive inside data. I think the problem is that anyone can call themselves a VC, even if they dont have any track record.
My favourite reason for not investing from a British investor (Haatch) was “Yes, we can do the entire round. The New Year starts in April, we have the capital to deploy, and we’d love to invest”. Followed by endless rounds of people being away or busy when it came time to collect the cheque and “we definitely still want to invest” when asked.
I have surface knowledge of the VC world, but these
> The biggest firms in your space aren't doing this, therefore it's not worth doing
> Your competitors are executing badly now but they will start to execute better in the future
do not sound unreasonable, they sound plain incompetent. Or at least not what I imagine as the skillset found in a VC.
I loved the bit in the post about "VCs cold calling and then rejecting the next day." When I was CTO/Co-Founder full time, I had one VC cold-call and pursue me unsolicited...and then he acted like I owed him a bunch of data and acted like I wasn't taking "the opportunity [to speak with him]" seriously. It seemed he just wanted competitive inside data. I think the problem is that anyone can call themselves a VC, even if they dont have any track record.
it's called market mapping and that's exactly what he wanted
The HN title moderation ruins posts more often than it helps with anything.
It's the Automatic HN Title Mangler™. It's pure shit and universally hated, but someone at HN is very proud of it - it can't be changed, ever.
I think it's normal that you'll get plenty of nos, it's part of the game.
Not surprised of any of those, but I'm surprised in the lack of doubts about the team, which is a recurring topic among investors.
#10 on the list there is team
in my experience few VCs will explicitly state a rejection on team to a founder's face due to that reason's propensity to generate a hostile reaction
My favourite reason for not investing from a British investor (Haatch) was “Yes, we can do the entire round. The New Year starts in April, we have the capital to deploy, and we’d love to invest”. Followed by endless rounds of people being away or busy when it came time to collect the cheque and “we definitely still want to invest” when asked.