Lessons in Dealing with VCs
Over the next two days Tom Evslin will blog the nine lessons he learned as a serial entrepreneur about dealing with VCs. Here are excerpts from the first installment
Lesson #1: there are times when raising venture capital is a bad idea...
Lesson # 2: there are times when it makes sense to raise venture capital...
Lesson #3: raise your venture funding as late as possible...
Lesson #4: pick your VCs well...
Your VCs will monitor what you do with your money closely. Some of them will end up on your board...Incompetent VCs, of course, are a disaster. A good VC, like a good startup CEO, must be able to learn and adapt! Sure, you all agreed on a business plan before they gave you the money and you ceded absolute control over your company. And, just as surely, at least half the assumptions that business plan was based on will turn out to be wrong as well as many of its conclusions. If your VCs won’t let you – won’t help you – adapt, you’re toast."
From Fractals of Change: Venture Capital - An Entrepreneur's View
