19December 2020Frequently, what I hear from a company CEO is completely uncorrelated to what I hear from the VC they were pitching when I later back-channel with the investor. In thinking about why this is, the answer is actually relatively straightforward: VCs are predisposed to give good meetings. And, by being equivocal at the end of a meeting, they preserve maximum option value.Parsing this a bit further, VCs take a lot of meetings. And they do so with varied motives. Sometimes they're legitimately interested in a market space or even a specific business. Sometimes another VC or entrepreneur asks them to take a meeting and they're trying to preserve a relationship. Sometimes they weren't paying close enough attention to your email and said yes when they meant to say no. There are lots of varying reasons why you might find yourself in front of a venture capitalist making your pitch. And the quality of those pitches varies a lot. Even among relatively experienced entrepreneurs, their ability to convey their business idea varies widely. But all of that said, once you're in a room with a VC they generally want you to have a good experience. Part of their business, in fact, is to make sure you have a good experience pitching them. Historically By Seth Levine, Managing Director, Foundry GroupHOW TO READ YOUR VC PITCH MEETINGCXO INSIGHTS
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