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May 23, 2006
You Never Know Who You’re Going to Get
I couldn’t help but laugh when I read Paul Kedrosky’s post Tribble Trouble last week, where he laments that the number of people who show up at an entrepreneur’s first meeting at a VC’s offices can multiply,
“And then ... you show up for this first meeting, thinking that you'll have a nice, informal chat -- and wham! There are five people in the meeting. There's the person you emailed with, but there's also an an entrepreneur-in-residence, two associates, and a partner who comes late, then keeps going in and out, checking email, and generally acts like he/she is double-parked… A one-VC meeting turns into a two-VC gab-fest, which turns into a four-VC presentation, and so on.”
It’s indeed true that this situation can and does occur… often. But I think the situation can be proactively managed (see #4 here) by asking beforehand both who is invited and who will likely join the meeting. The answer may (read: will) change on the day of the meeting, but raising the issue will serve as a good guidepost and could lead to a discussion about how many people are appropriate, if need be. And if a more informal one-on-one conversation is ideal, directly asking for it makes intentions and preferences known. Also, while some VCs don’t drink coffee, I think meeting somewhere for coffee or breakfast, when it is purpose-driven and/or genuine advice-seeking, is a good way of ensuring an audience of one. For some reason, VCs don’t travel in packs outside the office.
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Comments (2)
If one is truely seeking advice than coffee outside of the office is great idea on how to keep the meeting small. However, when I am presenting to a VC, I'd like to have as many decision-makers in the room as possible and I can't see any downside to having multiple members of the firm sit in on any meeting when I'm trying raise capital rather than seeking confidential advice.
Posted by Andrew Fife | May 24, 2006 6:23 AM
Posted on May 24, 2006 06:23
What's worse is keeping track of it all during conference call pitches.
I was doing a call with a west coast firm. I had already met in person, and pitched one partner. This was a call to get some buy in from partner #2, it started out just me and him on the call. About half way through the call I realized that he was no longer alone at the other end, he had called in a third partner. By the time the call ended there were 3 people on the other end of the call.
Posted by Erik | May 24, 2006 9:13 AM
Posted on May 24, 2006 09:13