

How I Pitched Dave McClure In The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time - mtreder
http://marcin.is/post/46281218323/how-i-pitched-dave-mcclure-in-the-wrong-place-at-the

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pshin45
When I first learned who Dave McClure was and saw his flippant attitude and
penchant for profanity, I was not a fan. I thought he seemed extremely
unprofessional and was making other startup founders look bad. But over time
as I learned more about him, I've definitely softened on him and now greatly
respect him, for the following reasons:

First off, he's incredibly open about the fact that he could never fit in at a
normal corporation due to his "eccentric ways", and by doing so empowers
others who are going through the same thing. He doesn't necessarily encourage
others to be like him, but he does (implicitly) encourage people to "Be
Yourself" and to not be afraid to acknowledge that you may be different from
the people around you and if so find a way of life that suits you better.

And most importantly, he has only the best of intentions - He truly wants
young, up-and-coming founders to succeed and not have to go through the
bullshit that he had to go through, and that seems to be his driving force in
life.

Dave McClure naturally creates a certain type of culture in everything he does
by way of his unique personality. If you don't like it that's cool, but in the
big picture I think it's a good thing and makes Silicon Valley a more diverse
and interesting community.

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btilly
Let me get this straight.

The would-be pitcher said, "May I pitch you?" "Sure, in 15 min." Then during
that 15 min in an interview that the would-be pitcher had no way to follow,
Dave McClure said not to pitch him. Then he came back to listen to the pitch
and it went horribly because Dave didn't want to be pitched.

If so then the fault here is all Dave's. If you don't want to be pitched, say
so up front. If you said that you're willing to be pitched, show up for it
mentally.

~~~
aneth4
No, it went horribly because Dave listened and they were invited for a follow-
up. Sounds like it went pretty well.

The starstruck tone of the article is a little embarrassing, but hey, Dave's
pretty awesome.

It's not so much that Dave can't be pitched. He is trying to intelligently
route pitching traffic through his expertise network, and you are probably
wasting his time and not being diligent and respectful if you don't follow
that advice.

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brm
I'll say it. We hold up some incredibly deficient people as idols in the tech
world.

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ghayes
That's ad hominem and unnecessary and downright offensive. You should judge
Dave McClure on his acts as an investor or advisor. HackerNews is meant to be
a constructive forum, and this comment was anything but.

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brm
It would be an ad hominem if I were in an argument with Dave and instead of
listening to his points attacked him personally. In this case I'm talking
about needing to see the forest for the trees. I'll gladly judge him on his
acts a person in the position of being a gatekeeper to a world people build
lives hopes and dreams on. You don't have to be a dick to be a good investor
and advisor.

~~~
ghayes
My concern is that you're calling someone a "dick" on a public forum. I
believe that's unfounded and unnecessary.

Dave is actually a very nice and caring person when you meet and talk to him,
his public persona be as it may.

~~~
cmbaus
The same sort of behavior from Linus has been bothering me as well. Linus may
hold the keys to something many people want access to, but that doesn't
justify his recent behavior. When you are in a position of authority, you
should hold yourself to a higher standard.

When 500 Startups didn't have the influence it does now, Dave McClure's
schtick may have made sense as a marketing ploy. But the days of needing over
the top rhetoric to get attention are over.

Compare Dave McClure with Jack Dorsey. Who would rather work with and who sets
a better example for the technology industry to follow?

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derefr
I disagree with you, but I also disagree with those who would disagree with
you. To put it shortly--I think Linus has every right to be an asshole to
people who want to contribute to "his" project.

And I think we have every right to be mad at him for it.

And I think he has every right to tell us to piss off for being mad at him for
it.

And I think we have every right to be mad at him for _that_.

Isn't free society wonderful? :)

~~~
cmbaus
Linus has a right to act however he wants. That doesn't make it right, and
frankly it doesn't give me a higher opinion of him. We've seen thread after
thread in the past couple weeks about the "locker room" mentality of the
industry, but from my seat it seems like a lot of people are condoning it.

~~~
derefr
I don't know anything about "the industry", since I go out of my way to avoid
working in "the industry"--but I want "going to work" to be another way to say
"going to go goof off with my friends in a way that makes us money somehow."
And I _like it_ when my friends act like assholes; it's amusing, because I
know them well enough to know it's not really all that serious.

That might not work very well when your coworkers aren't your friends--but
really, _that's_ the problem with that, not anything to do with objectively
objectionable behavior.

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cmbaus
Reading this makes me question why people are begging to work with Dave
McClure.

~~~
mtreder
He's a wise guy and he's a lot of fun. Honestly - I'm not surprised that
people want to work with him.

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cmbaus
wise guy [1] noun Informal. a cocksure, conceited, and often insolent person

Sounds about right.

[1]<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wiseguy>

~~~
mtreder
Crap. That wasn't my intention. Didn't know about this collocation in english
:D

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kosei
"Pitching me directly for 30 seconds is a completely fucking ineffectual way
to get my attention... and usually destined to fail miserably."

Hilarious quote, but also incredibly honest. Great stuff.

~~~
mtreder
Thanks! Glad you like it. I think there's a lesson for entrepreneurs all over
the world in it.

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verelo
Pitch by not pitching, seriously some of the best advice anyone could give a
startup. I too get very sick of pitches when really all i want to do is meet
smart people, if they turn out to be interesting, then lets hear the
pitch.....but dont start with it!

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guptaneil
I learned this lesson the hard way. It's amazing how much more interest you
can garner just by treating the other person like a human being rather than a
means to an end. Unfortunately, it is easy for a startup founder to fall into
this trap.

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ajross
On the "reading the bubble tea leaves" front: what does it say about the
startup world when even full time investors are sick of being pitched?

I'm watching this all from the outside, in a stable salaried job outside the
bay area. But it just feels like the end of a road -- the community is eating
itself. Making stuff people want is a distant memory at this point.

~~~
pshin45
The reason Dave McClure is sick of being pitched is not because he's jaded or
tired of doing what he does.

It's because it's not humanly possible for a single investor, be it Dave
McClure or a YC partner, to process the sheer volume of pitches that come
their way. There needs to be some sort of filtering mechanism, and
endorsements/recommendations are one way of doing that.

As Dave mentioned in the video embedded in the article, he WILL give his full
attention to a founder IF they have already met with 500 Startups portfolio
companies (i.e. people he trusts and respects) and proven to them that they
are legit.

People like Dave McClure (and pg) have thousands of people vying for his
extremely limited time, and so giving his full attention to every pitch that
comes his way would be a huge disservice to the other startups that actually
deserve it i.e. have actually done their homework, put time in to prove
themselves, and committed to forming long-term relationships with people in
his community vs. those looking for a quick and easy shortcut to funding and
networking.

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ajross
That's an explanation for the proximate cause of "do not fucking pitch me".
And that part I understand just fine.

My point was deeper: once the environment has reached a point where the
important investors have "thousands of people vying for [their] extremely
limited time", to the extent that "it's not humanly possible [...] to process
the sheer volume of pitches", then it seems like the startup environment has
jumped the shark. It's a machine now -- generate as many launches as possible,
and pitch them to as many investors as possible. The focus is about funding --
not survival (does anyone remember "ramen profitable"? Yeah, we don't hear
that so much anymore), and not products.

Back in 2005, it didn't seem that way at all...

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pshin45
Touche, but is this hyper growth in startups necessarily a bad thing, or just
a bump in the road and a bottleneck to be overcome?

Despite how mainstream tech entrepreneurship has become, and despite how many
founders are not in it for the right reasons, I still believe (or hope) it's
mostly noise and the best products and founders will always rise to the top.
The US (and the world) still needs more entrepreneurship to stay competitive,
though perhaps not in its current model/form, and we haven't yet reached the
point of diminishing returns in my opinion.

This is a tangent to your main point, but TechCrunch had a pretty good piece
on how YC tries to tackle this problem: <http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/02/yc-
y-combinator-scaling/>

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ajross
Oh, I agree that entrepreneurship is important, and if a thousand iterations
on "mobile social sharing app with nice typography" is the price to pay, then
it's worth paying.

But as someone who watched the end of the 90's boom, this feels the same way.
I don't have numbers, but do any of us really believe there is enough future
revenue in mobile social sharing apps with nice typography to justify the
absolutely insane funding environment?

I don't either. And there's a hard landing ahead.

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jonathanjaeger
I think Mark Suster has a similar mindset (with similar bluntless albeit not
as hard-hitting perhaps) -- there's no way he can hear everyone pitch or have
a coffee with every startuper, but if you take the time to get an intro
through a well-trusted contact that will move you further down the "conversion
funnel" to getting a meeting. Sure Dave McClure or Mark Suster or any other
investor might be right in front of you, but you also don't want to reek of
desperation when you make your move.

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rdl
Speaking of wrong place/wrong time, was funny how a well known investor
recently asked in a bathroom during an intermission for evaluations of
companies :). That violates bathroom rules I think!

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curiousDog
Next time: "Hi!, I'm xyz, you may remember me from such startups as ..."

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mtreder
He actually knew who I am (at least a little bit), but you're right, that's a
necessary start.

~~~
JonnieCache
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC7TVRU5nho>

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jeffehobbs
I can tell you for sure, this story didn't take place in the public library!
Because Dave McClure can barely read and write!

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ChuckMcM
Random observation, the embedded youtube video is sized in such a way to clip
off the controls that let you full screen it or watch it on youtube or change
resolution. I don't know if that is intentional or not but its annoying on a
smaller screen device that its not easily zoomable to full screen.

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revth
Kindly shut the fuck up.

~~~
hefi
I admire your consequence in replying :)

