>Author has no concept of what it is like to take submissions to anything.
1. You're quite confident that you know me after reading one anonymous blog post. First, QQQ posts our real email and phone number on our website. I personally read/listen to every submission (1000+ in 2014) through this channel, and someone on our team (usually me) replies to every (non-troll) comment. We have also read and reviewed 100+ resumes attached to cold emails, along with 10+ cold investor email pitches. All three 'cold' channels have yielded amazing returns, including one of our best hires, a couple of our best investors, and many of our most loyal customers. As I've said before, the solution to warm introductions is not unlimited, irrelevant cold emails. But VCs should read and respond to all cold submissions that are clear, concise, and relevant.
>Use common sense: VCs are financially motivated to find good companies to invest in!
2. Of course, VCs are financially motivated to find great companies. However, expecting that this fact will lead to optimal decision-making on their part assumes a perfectly efficient market.
I'm arguing that the heuristics used by many investors are flawed. Early-stage funding, including at accelerators like YC, skews towards twentysomething founders. That's despite the fact that the average founder of a 'unicorn' startup is well over 30. Men get funded at higher rates than women. Tall men get funded at higher rates than short men. No one is arguing that any of these heuristics are correlated with increased returns. But they exist.
>You should listen and understand what that something is, because that understanding is valuable.
3. This is not about me. QQQ is doing great. We could raise a Series A now, but I want to push for 4-6 months of additional growth before doing so. Also, this is my second startup as a founder, and I learned from my first that it was important to move QQQ to Silicon Valley and build a large network here. When I need to meet a VC these days, I always get 1+ warm introductions into the ideal partner.
Many of the stories I tell on my blog are from my early startup days. Since then, I have learned how to "play the game." But I never forgot how much we struggled at the beginning, and want to share my experiences so that future founders will be able to spend more time building products that people love and less time learning to conform with artificial societal norms.
1. You're quite confident that you know me after reading one anonymous blog post. First, QQQ posts our real email and phone number on our website. I personally read/listen to every submission (1000+ in 2014) through this channel, and someone on our team (usually me) replies to every (non-troll) comment. We have also read and reviewed 100+ resumes attached to cold emails, along with 10+ cold investor email pitches. All three 'cold' channels have yielded amazing returns, including one of our best hires, a couple of our best investors, and many of our most loyal customers. As I've said before, the solution to warm introductions is not unlimited, irrelevant cold emails. But VCs should read and respond to all cold submissions that are clear, concise, and relevant.
>Use common sense: VCs are financially motivated to find good companies to invest in!
2. Of course, VCs are financially motivated to find great companies. However, expecting that this fact will lead to optimal decision-making on their part assumes a perfectly efficient market.
I'm arguing that the heuristics used by many investors are flawed. Early-stage funding, including at accelerators like YC, skews towards twentysomething founders. That's despite the fact that the average founder of a 'unicorn' startup is well over 30. Men get funded at higher rates than women. Tall men get funded at higher rates than short men. No one is arguing that any of these heuristics are correlated with increased returns. But they exist.
>You should listen and understand what that something is, because that understanding is valuable.
3. This is not about me. QQQ is doing great. We could raise a Series A now, but I want to push for 4-6 months of additional growth before doing so. Also, this is my second startup as a founder, and I learned from my first that it was important to move QQQ to Silicon Valley and build a large network here. When I need to meet a VC these days, I always get 1+ warm introductions into the ideal partner.
Many of the stories I tell on my blog are from my early startup days. Since then, I have learned how to "play the game." But I never forgot how much we struggled at the beginning, and want to share my experiences so that future founders will be able to spend more time building products that people love and less time learning to conform with artificial societal norms.