
Who is your dream investor? - Harj

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Harj
If you could have anyone, VC or angel, invest in your startup who would it be
(YC excluded)?

For me I think it'd probably be either Ron Conway or Ram Shriram - they seem
to be the closest thing there is to a bridge between traditional angel money
and VC.

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sharpshoot
Hey Harjy - Jeff Bezos would rock. Very few investors would bring the wisdom
bezos brings. Legend.

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Elfan
No one. I would prefer to be able to grow a business that is profitable, not
one desperate for an exit strategy before funds run out. I've seen what
happens when a company tries to gamble on getting bigger and fails (investment
bankers are not nice).

With VCs you trade time (to find them) and control in exchange for money and
contacts. That is often a good and necessary trade but one I personally would
not like to need to make.

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Harj
You're going confusing two things here. Raising investment for your company is
not the same as having a business model dependent upon acquisition/exit
strategy.

Remember ever investor dreams of getting stock in the next Google - the one
piece of their portfolio that will make up for all the other losses combined.
A big hit of nature will come either from a massive acquisition (like YouTube
- but just how many acquisitions have there been on that scale? The media
hypes these up a lot but that distorts the actual perception of the regularity
with which they occur) or from running a sustainable business e.g. Facebook
that can grow by itself.

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Elfan
You're going confusing two things here. Raising investment for your company is
not the same as having a business model dependent upon acquisition/exit
strategy.

You are correct, the two need not come together. I was thinking of the
traditional idea of a technology startup.

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gustaf
After hearing Fred Wilson talk I'd definitely say Union Square Ventures. At
least your best east coast option, together with First Round.

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dfranke
Am I restricted to people who are actually in the seed or VC business? If not:
Woz.

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Harj
Hmm interesting question. I suppose there is no need to restrict but I would
say that as great as Woz is - would he really add more to your startup than an
angel investing veteran like Ron Conway? Investing is as much about bringing a
list of contacts to the table as it is about anything else.

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dfranke
It's more about street cred than anything else. I want an investor who will
make people think "if he's putting his money into this company, it's worth
checking out". A knowledgable VC can bring me to other investors/acquirers.
Someone like Woz could bring other investors to me.

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danielha
I'm not exceedingly familiar with too many VC names at this point, but I'd
second Ram Shriram. Dave Cheriton would also be a great person on your side,
but he's more of an advisor. For VC, John Doerr from KCP&B; comes to mind.

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python_kiss
Jeff Bezos once described John Doerr as the center of gravity in the Silicon
Valley :)

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michaeltrincal
After reading about his investment style and bootstrapping background (and
huge sales), Jesse Rasch. Also, I don't think there are other Angels like him
in Canada, unless I missed some - you guys in the US have lots.

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pg
Sequoia.

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Harj
paul would you pick sequoia over angel if you were early stage and it was the
first round of money you were raising?

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pg
Sequoia in a second, if they actually offered at that stage.

If a startup was super good, so good that what a top VC offered was rounding
error compared to what the startup could do for itself, they might be better
off with angel money, because they could name their terms, and they'd probably
get a better valuation. Google did that for their early rounds. But few
startups are that hot.

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Harj
this article certainly provides v strong support for your view

http://www.imitrust.com/thepit/2007/01/25/sequoia-capital-the-entrepreneurs-
entrepreneur/

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theudude2002
My absolute favourite is Guy Kawasaki. He's a genius. Micheal Moritz and Paul
Kedrosky also would be exciting to work with.

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danielha
I'm also a Guy Kawasaki fan. He and YC's own pg have contributed heavily to my
idealogies regarding creating a successful product.

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sharpshoot
Guy writes amazing books, no offence, but whats guy's investment trackrecord?
Reid Hoffman or Peter Thiel would be great guys to get investment from. Reid
has an incredible trackrecord - last.fm, digg, facebook, friendster etc

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theudude2002
I don't look solely on trackrecords. Business is hard work but to some extent
also luck. Hits in the past are no guaranty for future hits. Guy believes that
entrepreneurs can change the world and make it a better place. Sounds quite
naive but to me a vision is much more motivating than money and trackrecords.

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dawie
Jeff Bezos, Jason Fried, Tim Oreilly, Michael Arrington, Paul Graham All of
these guys are my heros

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Harj
All great names but if it came down to one of them - who would you want to put
the money in?

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dawie
Jason Fried

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dawie
Because he will put in Less. Money that is.

