You must have heard the saying...investors back the jockey (founder/team) over the horse (venture). This is why we spend significant time doing due diligence on the team during our investment process...and this is why we could have a discussion on just this topic for an hour and half during a panel facilitated by Sprout People alongside our colleagues from Pacific Channel and Outset Ventures. It's all about the people! Ngaio Merrick Mitali Purohit Irene Hao Matthew White
Who said crowd work is just for comedians? Some great questions came from the crowd at today's event "The VC Perspective: Beyond Tech, Investing in People" and the panelists were incredibly generous with their advice. Some hard truths were shared to founders: 🙍♀️ Expect a conversation from investors about whether you're the right CEO. You may or may not be, but be prepared to have the conversation 👉 Expect change - in deep tech the team you end with is likely to be very different from the team you start with 👣 It's currently a challenge attracting a lead investor And some tips: Cather Simpson - we look for people who surround themselves with people that are better than they are, supplement their skills in some way. Mat R. - be able to communicate in manageable chunks up and down the chain. Mitali Purohit - with science and engineering we know some things aren't going to work out, we loooove people who communicate and it doesn't all have to be good news. Fleur Clough you facilitated like a boss. Thanks Outset Ventures for providing the space to make this happen.
