

The other side of Paul Graham's Coin: Ideas on the kind of VC we'd like to get funded by - ceonyc
http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2008/07/the-other-side.html

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dmix
I think this poster is somewhat Naive.

It ones thing to sell your vision and philosophy to a VC. But to ask them to
be fun, principled, and the whole firm thing...

"I'd like to be able to walk into my VC's office and have just about anyone
there be interested in talking to me--and not have to feel like I'm waiting
for just one person."

It sounds more like hes looking for someone to pat him on the back then an
investor.

The VCs job is to get a return on his investment and in the process help you
get to that position. At the end of the day its about business regardless if
your "vision" and "passion" is about helping people find their calling or
whatever his intentions are.

How about a list of things you'd expect from a VC in terms of the business,
not personality or character? The only one I saw was "knowledge in our
market".

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cmos
I'm not getting it. The relationship needs not be 'chummy'. Certainly you need
to have a functional working relationship with an investor, but it's usually
always best to keep the personal relationship at an arm's length as they don't
have your best interests at heart, and vice versa. If your both lucky you'll
always want to travel the same path.

The trick is, (usually) in their contracts they can often do what they want
with your precious company (i.e. opt to put it up for sale to break even on
their investment X years after the investment), and they won't give a damm
that you went to a few ballgames together.

You are both using each other beneficially, often there is a lot of money
involved, and they are far better at negotiating investment agreements than
you are. I would not complicate that relationship anymore than it has to be.

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ScottWhigham
For already successful companies seeking funding, it's all
asking/understanding "What do you bring to the table other than your money?"
Joe Blow's $250,000 isn't as valuable as Mark Cuban's $250,000 investment for
the reasons in that article.

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gm
Nice post, but rather inconsequential: Who needs who more, after all? VCs get
to choose, right? They are the ones with the money. Companies go after the VCs
not the other way around. VCs are the ones with their staff filtering phone
calls, not the other way around.

This post strikes me as "in a perfect world, [...]". Rather inconsequential.

Here's mine: In a perfect world, Ferraris would cost $3000 USD, but only I'd
be able to buy one. Yeah, whatever.

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edw519
_VCs get to choose, right?_

Not necessarily.

You bring up a great point. Instead of building a startup that can attract VC
attention, why not focus instead on building a startup that VCs will fight
over. _That's_ how we should all be thinking.

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gm
If the point is to get funding, yes, I suppose. Don't you build startups to be
useful, though?

I do think you have a point, though, if, if your building your company, you
set it up to be so profitable, VCs will fight to get in on the action. All
startups should do that, given that businesses DO exist to make a profit (and
a great many people forget that fact, profit is the difference between a
business a hobby), so your point is well-taken.

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bprater
Wow, that took me way to long to figure out what that post was about.

I was looking for big projects that needed to be funded by a VC, when I
finally got it that someone is looking for a VC to fund them. Yeeks. (Note to
self: read slower!)

It's not really the other side of Paul's coin folks. Totally different
concept.

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ideas101
one more: someone who has experience as a startup entrepreneur so that he/she
understands and feels the pain & gain in sync.

