How to Get a VC Meeting – the flowchart

http://steveblank.com/2012/10/17/how-to-get-a-vc-meeting-the-flowchart/

by ridruejo • 14 years ago

24 6 14 years ago

bigdubs• 14 years ago

My understanding is that VC's, partners or associates, whole job is to source deals. It's their job to take meetings. What happens after that meeting is the tricky part.

arbuge• 14 years ago

VC meetings aren't that hard... filtering out the VCs who are just fishing for information can be harder.

OldSchool• 14 years ago

Just a counterpoint...

Before even trying to get a VC meeting I'd ask myself, "Can I do this without a VC?" All money comes with strings attached, VC money more than customer money.

There's no one correct answer but if you really believe that your web startup can succeed I'd consider first try filling out your team by adding partners with complementary skills and then put the same effort into sales and marketing to the customer rather than VC's. VC's could be harder to close than typical customers.

What's the main motivation for the VC route? Shooting for the moon? Fear of working without a salary? (nobody's going to pay you while you try to raise money either)

CoffeeDregs• 14 years ago

The flowchart is both correct and completely useless. It betrays the concern of a successful entrepreneur (Steve Blank) and focuses on the status of the VC with whom you will meet (partner, associate or none).

VC meetings are easy to get. Just go to a few networking events, meet some of them, get their business cards and drop them a note asking for a meeting. Their job is something like 40% networking, 40% saying "no" to deals and 20% trying to value deals to which they might or have said "yes". By and large, I've found them to be very smart, nice and helpful people and I count a few of them among my friends.

But remember: to get advice, ask for money; to get money, ask for advice. VCs apply money to fix problems and risks in order to increase growth. Help them understand how you can help them through helping their reputation, portfolio (through helping your business) and future opportunities (through helping you).

wgoodwin• 14 years ago

A slight deviation of topic, but I think this point is too-often ignored: "VCs apply money to fix problems and risks in order to increase growth." VCs want you to increase your risk profile, while entrepreneurs focus on getting capital to decrease the risk of going belly up from undercapitalization. Your last point seems like the way to avoid those two from coming in conflict from the outset.

cateye• 14 years ago

These days everyone is a funding expert for start-ups. Trying to earn money on clueless founders is I think getting a real big market. Providing services and training to these founders is apparently easy and without any risk. Is Steve Blank one of them?

How to Get a VC Meeting – the flowchart

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