
The First VC Meeting (2009) - gtabx
https://bothsidesofthetable.com/the-first-vc-meeting-post-1-of-many-a74bc6823a18
======
mdda
Since there's no link at the of Part 5 to part 6:

Part 6 : [https://bothsidesofthetable.com/sorry-guys-it-s-the-size-
of-...](https://bothsidesofthetable.com/sorry-guys-it-s-the-size-of-the-wave-
not-the-motion-of-the-ocean-22d0ebf1954e)

Part 6cont : [https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitfalls-in-market-sizing-
pa...](https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitfalls-in-market-sizing-
part-6-continued-59e2d3222013)

Part 7? : [https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitching-a-vc-dealing-
with-c...](https://bothsidesofthetable.com/pitching-a-vc-dealing-with-
competition-5c34bcf4151)

... and then the numbering / search functionality seems to hit a dead-end.
Pointers welcome...

------
jacques_chester
I appreciate that Mark Suster is upfront in saying he's only interested in the
correct pedigree. Even the "wrong" pedigree is a recognisable pedigree.

The rest of us don't exist.

(Edit: a better phrasing might be "the rest of us are not found in his
taxonomy, possibly because it would muddle the discussion")

Which, given his position, is understandable. VCs can lean on brutally
inefficient filters, since they get so many opportunities to recover from
lossy rejections. And on the flipside, they can't afford to drown in lossy
acceptances. C'est la vie.

~~~
w1ntermute
If you don't have the pedigree, go get it. Become that Stanford masters
student, or go work at Google or Facebook for a few years. Then when dingbat
investors like Suster ask for pedigree, just namedrop Google.

Of course, keep in mind that Suster himself doesn't have the right pedigree
(he studied econ at UCSD and got an MBA from Chicago). Then again, maybe
that's why he has a shitty portfolio (Upfront is certainly no Sequoia).

~~~
jacques_chester
> _If you don 't have the pedigree, go get it._

I am fortunate to be in a position where I can.

But on the whole, it is probably cheaper (in time, money and stress) to find
different investors than to go to Stanford.

------
trestles
Kinda an obvious post; the name dropping of schools is a bit obnoxious in my
opinion esp since the current highest valued private company is run by a UCLA
dropout - something Suster would obviously have loved to invest in after the
fact. I find the exceptionally smart "startup" people are very knowledgable
about their competition and their companies relation to them and can project
out to the future.

------
akavi
As somebody whose bio checks all the boxes Suster mentions, but without any
particular drive or ambition, it seems like I could do cracking business
renting myself out to real entrepreneurs as a face for these pitch meetings...

You hear people talking about colleges as nothing but signalling mechanisms,
but holy shit, this article's ridiculous.

------
webtechgal
From Part 5 (Doing a demo):

> The stories should roll off your tongue since you’ve done it hundreds of
> times...

If I were a VC (not that it is likely to ever happen), and if your stories
rolled off your tongue, it would set off some alarm bells ringing for me. If
the stories roll so smoothly, just how many times have you told them before
(apparently, without success)?

------
ikeboy
> Maybe you’re not a tech-head but you’ve hired a 23 year old from Harvard
> with a 1,600 SAT who’s your CTO (another real world example I heard just
> this week!)

Is it normal to mention SAT scores in an investor meeting?

~~~
apsec112
No. At least, I've never heard of it happening, and I'm pretty sure the
investors I've met would think it was silly.

~~~
webtechgal
Many years ago, my ex-boss was in an informal pitch meeting with a very
prominent tech lady (who is/was a limited partner at a major SV VC fund as
well as an angel investor) and he mentioned that he had signed up an
experienced Harvard MBA as the CFO and her reaction was along the line of
'Well, so what?'.

------
mountaineer22
This is 7 years old.

~~~
ci5er
Surely it is about this VCs personal preferences, but has the dynamic markedly
changed in that time?

My favorite high-tech product marketing book was written in the 1980s...

~~~
TAForObvReasons
> My favorite high-tech product marketing book was written in the 1980s...

What book are you referring to?

~~~
ci5er
[https://www.amazon.com/Marketing-High-Technology-William-
Dav...](https://www.amazon.com/Marketing-High-Technology-William-Davidow-
ebook/dp/B001D1YCU4)

Now, granted, this is about technology products as opposed to consumer facing
apps: think Intel vs. Motorola CPUs back in the day or the various TI-vs-
everyone DSP tangles. It's still very applicable to any number of technologies
in robotics, energy and even things like MRIs.

