Asked yesterday at a panel in front of several entrepreneurs to elaborate on the “how shall entrepreneurs approach us” I had occasion to think about the subject and realized that this approach is what immediately set me off in looking at different proposals, in particular (sadly) in Italy.
I encouraged the audience to think about the entrepreneur-vc relationship as a journey to wedding (or in any case to a stable /long lasting relationship) with a companion. This is particularly true nowadays when average VC holding times are longer than they were in late nineties for example.
How would you react if somebody you have met on a dating site would email you out of the blue a msg like the following: “Hello, I am a very pretty lady and have many wedding proposals already. I am definitely a high maintenance girl and will only consider man available to guarantee me a budget over a million USD per year for 30% of my time. If you want to discuss in order for your application for the privilege of a meeting to be considered please provide copy of your last paycheque and sign the attached pre-nuptial agreement”. Sounds weird to you ? You wouldn’t imagine how many unsolicited approaches I have every month from people providing only a very minimal description of their business but with a fairly precise description of the terms of the deal they’re ready to accept nevertheless asking you to sign the attached NDA to receive more info.
How would you behave at the end of a first date with somebody you really like to know more ? Would you leave the car without a word and without letting somehow know that you’d be interested in some sort of next step ? Well this happens everyday here. People come, present 40-50 powerpoint slides, finish their presentation, close the book and leave the office almost without a word. Only the smarter ones suggest some kind on next step, outline a process, encourage some kind of due diligence, ask for a kind of feedback. Defining upfront a desired result and a path to it is the key to success in any kind of relationship both personally and professionally. Why should this be different in the Entrepreneurs-VC world ?
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Posted by: Tracey Barber | June 06, 2011 at 04:16 AM