Anyone that’s inventing the kinds of products that we typically do should be able to articulate a relatively robust theory around “What is human nature? What is humanity like now? Where is it going? And how does your product or service fit into that?”
I have talked with basically every Venture Fund in the valley (Including Greylock by the way) and a Partner has never asked me anything remotely close to this kind of a question. When in the hour intro pitch, or the two hour partner pitch would my personal philosophy come up? Well, the answer in my experience is: it won't come up.
This further reinforces that the people funding at the idea or early deployment stage of their companies are getting it through relationships built over long periods of time with these people. This isn't new to anyone who has been there before, but if it's not clear to you that fundraising is 99% network then you should realize that this is the case.
Are you saying this is the kind of question that an investor would only have the luxory of asking several weeks into an actual relationship?
To be fair, Reid said he spends a long time with people before pulling the trigger (40 hrs+ for founders) and you basically must come in through a refferal.
Are you saying this is the kind of question that an investor would only have the luxory of asking several weeks into an actual relationship?
Forget several weeks, probably over a much longer time period where they are socializing in a friendly way spanning multiple events/dinners etc...
I think there is this notion that there are no "politics" in the startup world which is poison to anyone entering it with the naive idea that "Idea, Talent, Traction, Timing" are everything.
I have talked with basically every Venture Fund in the valley (Including Greylock by the way) and a Partner has never asked me anything remotely close to this kind of a question. When in the hour intro pitch, or the two hour partner pitch would my personal philosophy come up? Well, the answer in my experience is: it won't come up.
This further reinforces that the people funding at the idea or early deployment stage of their companies are getting it through relationships built over long periods of time with these people. This isn't new to anyone who has been there before, but if it's not clear to you that fundraising is 99% network then you should realize that this is the case.