I had an email exchange with a guy earlier today that seems worthy of a quick blog post. After receiving a 30 second description of this entrepreneur's business (literally 30 seconds), I reached out to him to let him know that I thought what he was doing was interesting and asked if he would like to get together to talk more about what he's working on. Here's the email I got back from him:
Would you be interested in investing? We aren't in funding raising mode at the moment, but would be interested in a 30 minute conversation if that would bring you to a decision if you are interested in putting in money as a convertible note…. Currently we don't have time for due diligence.
I'm not sure which is more disheartening, 1) the idea that an entrepreneur would think this is a reasonable response to a request to get together and talk about his business or 2) the fact that there are "investors" out there who would consider putting money into a company after receiving such an email (in fact, I'd be willing to bet that there are "investors" who have already put money into this company under the same circumstances).
Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I still think investing involves more than a 30 second pitch. I've written about this before -- there is a big difference between moving quickly and abdicating all responsibility. Sure, there's lots of money out there today. But there are also lots of great investors who can be way more valuable to a company than simply acting like an ATM.
I'm going to use my air quotes a different way.
That "entrepreneur" is definitely missing out on what real investors can bring to the table.
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There seems to be a notion out there that superstar entrepreneurs turn everything into gold and everyone should just give them money without asking (some VC's admit it)... Will that hold true in 5y time, when it's time to do the math?
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This guy has surely gone through the dd process before and clearly doesn't want to deal with another pompous vc who after a few presentations thinks he knows how to run his business better than he does. However, a smart person will always ask for help when it's needed.
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description of this entrepreneur's business (literally 30 seconds), I reached out to him to let him know that I thought what he was doing was interesting and asked if he would like to get together to talk more about what he's working on. Here's the email I got back from him:
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I am pretty sure I did write at some point something as ludicrous and uncordial as what you're citing today. Entrepreneurs are just too swamped by too many things at the stage they could benefit from a VC that they don't see the bigger picture anymore, and tend to loose common social skills. It is not arrogance, not billion-dollar-dreaming or any of this, it's just that... we actually REALLY don't have time for any kind of seemingly ineffective and disruptive task with little chance of producing a tangible outcome anyway. I can almost hear him think after (possibly) reading your post: "OK, fair enough I wasn't even very polite, but why should I actually spend time if he's not even willing to check whether there is a point in all of this with a simple phone conversation?"
Both you and him missed out on some potentially beneficial cooperation, because you just didnt need each other enough.
Quoting Joel on Software: "But the great companies are often not the ones that spend all their time begging for investments. They may already be profitable. They may be too busy to look for VC, something which is a full time job for many entrepreneurs. Many excellent entrepreneurs feel that their time is better spent pitching products to customers rather than pitching stock to investors. It's bizarre that so many VCs are willing to ignore these companies simply because they aren't playing the traditional get-funded game. Get out there and pursue them!"
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