

Don't ask venture capitalists for referrals if they say they're not interested. - profgubler
http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2010/april/205524.html

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dpifke
If his reason for turning you down is "it's not my thing," that implies it may
be someone else's "thing." Perhaps that someone else is known to him. Not sure
why he'd be bent out of shape for an entrepreneur following up with the
obvious question: who?

He'd get a lot fewer people asking for referrals if he flat out said "I don't
think the idea/team/market/whatever is any good," in which case it would be
illogical for an entrepreneur to ask for a referral (or for him to give one,
since doing so would cost him credibility).

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inboulder
I like Brad, but sometimes he comes off as a narcissistic princess. If the VC
already said 'no', it doesn't hurt at all to ask for a referral, the worst
that can happen is they'll again say 'no' or ignore you.

~~~
adnam
It seemed ok, up until the point where he said "this has never worked for me
when dating"!

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00joe
The article explains why the VC doesn't want to give the referral, but it
doesn't explain how it can hurt me to ask. If you have ever sold something,
you know, you have to ask a lot of unlikely people for help before you get
any.

~~~
jlees
Well, it'll hurt your future relationship (should there be one) with the VC,
which could be detrimental further down the line if they remember you. Plus,
if every VC behaves like this, it'll hurt you because nobody will ever refer
you and therefore you waste the few seconds you spent typing out the question.

I can see this from both sides. We are trained as entrepreneurs to ask, ask,
ask. If they say no, ask them who might say yes. But if they say no because
they're a biotech late-stage VC, and you're after social-web angel funding, so
they read your first two sentences and then turned off - what value does a
referral really have?

It all comes down to doing your homework, IMO. If someone who _should_ be
interested declines, they can probably help you. If you're mass mailing every
VC in Silicon Valley and asking for introductions from those who bother to
reply to your poorly-targeted pitch, well, you've got a bigger problem than a
VC writing a blog post about you.

~~~
pw0ncakes
_Well, it'll hurt your future relationship (should there be one) with the VC,
which could be detrimental further down the line if they remember you._

Rejection's just a matter of business, but if he refuses to refer you and
doesn't have a good reason (e.g. "everyone in my network is interested in
biotech, and you're a web startup") he already thinks you're a loser and
beneath consideration. At this point, getting his panties in a jam by asking a
question he'll find annoying is a (small) benefit.

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raganwald
I think asking for a referral is an extremely delicate thing in sales as well
as raising capital. While you have little to lose from asking for a referral
after a rejection, you also have much to gain from pitching this very
carefully.

You don't want to come off as implying the VC is wrong to turn you down,
consider acknowledging the possibility that your idea isn't ready in the VC's
mind before asking for a referral.

"Hey Brad, thanks for your polite note... I get that it isn't right for you to
move forward with our team right now. Quite honestly, I value your advice. Is
there someone you know who might be able to help us move forward a little
more, if not by investing at least by helping us understand where we need to
get to and how to proceed? Someone who is perhaps specializing in ventures
like ours?

"While we would love to raise money from someone like you right now, if we
aren't ready we would appreciate steering us to someone who is in a position
to help us sharpen our focus.

"Thanks in advance,

"Reginald S. Braithwaite, Esq."

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gyardley
This is true, but not for the reasons given in the article. VCs largely follow
each other's lead - they're interested in deals that others are interested in.

If one VC refers you to another, but that first one isn't investing, you're
automatically damaged goods. You can and should be getting better referrals
into investors than that. Entrepreneurs who have made the investor money in
the past or are doing well for the investor in the present are the best.

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URSpider94
I look at this as a game theory problem. If the number of VC's out there is
very large, they are not well-connected, and the number of funding
interactions you're going to have over your career is small, then ask away.
Who cares if you upset that person? You're never going to deal with them (or
their network) again.

If, on the other hand, the number of VC's is limited, they are well-connected
to each other, and you plan to ask for funding repeatedly, then how you handle
each individual interaction becomes VERY important, because it has a high
chance of affecting all of your future interactions.

I find that much of the advice out there on sales and networking is focused on
the former case, where the goal is to maximize the chance of a win in the
first contact, even at the risk of making an enemy.

~~~
pw0ncakes
_I find that much of the advice out there on sales and networking is focused
on the former case, where the goal is to maximize the chance of a win in the
first contact, even at the risk of making an enemy._

What kind of asshole is going to become an enemy because you asked for an
introduction?

~~~
raganwald
> What kind of asshole is...

[http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/04/venture-capitalist-
passe...](http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/04/venture-capitalist-passes-
away.html)

------
DaniFong
It's not quite true that investors don't respond to emails over the transom.
In my experience they just have to be very targeted.

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pw0ncakes
_In networking seminars, classes and sales conferences around the world,
people are told some version of "if you get rejected by someone, ask them for
a referral." This has never worked for me when dating. (After being rejected,
I don't recall saying, "I know you aren't interested in me, but do you have
any friends that are?") I've never really understood why people think this
works in a business context._

It doesn't happen explicitly, but a lot of the time, a person who's already in
a relationship (i.e. who will reject the suitor for non-personal reasons) will
refer attractive singles to friends.

If a VC rejects me, I'm going to assume that I'm not offering what he's
looking to invest in, because the "VCs invest in people, not projects" line is
wrong and it's legitimate and expected that a VC will reject people who aren't
in his domain. If he refuses to _refer_ me, on the other hand, to someone who
might be looking to invest in my project, I'm going to recognize that his
ability to judge talent is nil.

~~~
alttab
_" If he refuses to refer me, on the other hand, to someone who might be
looking to invest in my project, I'm going to recognize that his ability to
judge talent is nil."_

Hypothetical: What if your idea and your business plan is a flaming dog pile?
Choosing to recognize that it is _his_ ability that is lacking at this point
is called arrogance.

~~~
pw0ncakes
Very unlikely, but then he should tell me why the idea is unlikely to work.

~~~
alttab
I disagree. A VC's job is to determine if he should give you money, not be a
personal founder business coach. Isn't that why we would go to him in the
first place?

Any information or feedback he gives should be considered a favor and is
purely optional on his part.

