Concept to Company Report
VLAB and Hummer Winblad hosted a panel at Stanford Business School titled Concept to Company: Strategies for Swimming with the Sharks. This
report from Will Price provides an excellent summary of the event and good advice for entreprenuers. Among the nuggets are the following:
"When To Raise VC Money...the "just add water approach;" walk in to meetings having validated a big market, shipped a solid product, sold paying customers, operated a well managed business, and hired a good team...validate the following five hypotheses:
Demand - select a large, established market to operate in and prove the innovation
Product - develop a complete and working product
Customers - referenceable accounts, good logos, and revenues
Profitability - prove efficiency, discipline, and frugality
Team - key players in place to grow..
Not All VCs are Created Equal...select VC firms that match the following criteria:
Domain expertise...
Relationship...
Everyone rows - access to all members of the investing firm...
Patience...
BOD - work hard to ensure a productive BOD dynamic and use VC BOD members to recruit value-added independents..."
