Vancouver VC wants an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for 2010

http://www.techvibes.com/blog/vancouver-vc-wants-an-entrepreneur-in-residence-for-2010

by vancity • 17 years ago

15 7 17 years ago

aditya2• 17 years ago

What exactly does an EIR do?

Can anyone on HN who has been one, or known one really well tell us what a typical day in the life of an EIR is and what is exciting about the job?

As I understand it, it is a temporary position before you become the growth-stage CEO of a company that the VC has previously funded? Or to become the CEO of a CEO-less company that the VC is funding? Is that about right? What else do EIRs do?

jjolsen• 17 years ago

We had an EIR when I was in grad school. He would basically just give a lot of advise, and explain why everyone's ideas wouldn't work. The exciting thing is that you potentially hear a lot of nearly-good ideas and you get to help transform them into good ideas.

vibhavs• 17 years ago

Here's a good explanation that I found:

"What does an EIR do?" - http://framethink.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/what-does-an-eir-...

aditya2• 17 years ago

Ah, nice post. Also, worthwhile: http://framethink.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/many-benefits-and...

Slightly comparable risk to Chris Dixon's why you don't want to raise seed money from a VC firm: http://cdixon.org/2009/08/14/the-problem-with-taking-seed-mo...

jasonlbaptiste2• 17 years ago

It depends on each firm, but it usually goes something like this:

You just left a company like Google in a prime role or sold your last startup. You don't know what you want to start yet, but you jive with the firm. They want first dibs on what you do next and/or you already have a great relationship with the firm. It might be joining another startup that comes in through the door or doing your own thing.

Bret Taylor did this with Benchmark before starting FriendFeed. Not sure if he frequents here,but he could give some insight. Jason Calacanis did it with Sequoia as an "Entrepreneur In Action" as well.

jasonlbaptiste2• 17 years ago

I would kill to do something like this. VCs need someone in the firm that's a product/engineering guy to really connect with entrepreneurs for that first chat. Something akin to the EIR role is probably the best place for them to be. Kevin Hale describes how that role might work after a constant flow of crappy VC interns who don't understand their product calling them about Wufoo:

"I've yet to wait for a VC to come and talk to me and have an idea, at the table and say, 'Look. I've looked at your business. I've looked at what you guys've done. Have you thought about these?' Right? I don't hear that at all. I don't understand. That's not how I would approach having someone be excited about wanting to be a partner in business."

unouno• 17 years ago

Here is a bit more info from the actual posting:

"If you are an individual with an outstanding entrepreneurial spirit and mind, who is looking to create the next best thing in consumer internet, would like to assist in the evaluation of potential investments and provide functional expertise to existing portfiolio companies, we would love to hear from you. You need to have a successful track record as entrepreneur or CEO / CTO in a start-up environment, ideally in the Consumer Internet area."

Vancouver VC wants an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for 2010

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