Los Angeles Venture Partners reposted this
I’ve created the ultimate decoder to the determine if a VC will invest in your company based on deciphering their answers… "Would love to see more traction." = No "Let me know when you have a lead." = No "It's a bit early for us." = No "Circle back once you've hit some milestones." = No "We're focused on other sectors right now." = No "Let's keep in touch and stay updated." = No "We’re prioritizing our current portfolio right now." = No "This is intriguing—just not the right fit for us." = No "Come back when you’re raising your next round." = No "We’re worried about the market timing for this." = No "We're watching the space closely but not ready to invest yet." = No "This is interesting, but we’re staying heads-down on our current investments." = No "It’s not within our core thesis right now." = No "Come back when you have some anchor customers." = No "Our fund is currently fully deployed, but we’re happy to stay in the loop." = No "We’re looking for something with a bit more differentiation." = No "We're hesitant about the competitive landscape." = No "We’d like to see a bit more revenue consistency." = No "We have concerns about scalability at this stage." = No "We’d love to see more validation from other investors." = No 👻 = No
In other words - anything that doesn't include "we", "are" and "in" is a No
Let’s create 10 signs of a potential yes. As an example: Just said to a founder “Can we plan a call next week with our full investment team?”
We give feedback (in full) to 100% of applicants. So far 11 investments from 2,700 applications, but always give quality feedback.
love this. spot on. now what about the reverse: the 'hmmm quite like this, but don't wanna tell him/her I do" answers?
“Happy to talk in 4 weeks” = No
Pre-seed: “need to see more traction” Seed: “too expensive” A: “wish we had met you at the seed” B: “can we still get a check in so we can put your logo on our website?”
You are missing the worst "No": the ghosting. Ghosting is a horrible, but often used, communication technique used by VCs.
“We have no doubt you will be successful, just unfortunately we will have to watch from the sidelines.” 🏈
CEO Loto Punto | Georgia Tech Scientist
1moGhosting = No