The Entrepreneur’s Wish List from VCs [part 1]

VC Cafe asked entrepreneurs to tell us what type of help or support they wish they could get from the venture capital investors. What started originally as how can VCs differentiate themselves to stand out, quickly became an Entrepreneur’s wish list from its VCs.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the entrepreneurs that took time to add, modify and improve this initial list with thoughtful feedback. I hope this becomes a useful resource for both VCs and entrepreneurs.

Some said that the two most important things they look to get from VC’s are a) Money, b) Don’t get in the way. It may be the case for you as well. However, if you believe in raising ‘smart money’, there may be a few other items on the wish-list.

So what should a ‘dream VC’ do? [not necesarily in order of importance!]

1. Use the power of all your investments to facilitate common infrastructure and better prices with vendors. Examples: insurance, health care, hosting, public relations, marketing materials, finding and hiring talent, etc…
   • Buying power, negotiation power, economies of scale were all mentioned in different variations.
2. Help with introductions – but be selective. Ask the CEO for specific tasks they need help with. Getting to specific people for recruiting, business development or just networking, entrepreneurs is highly appreciated when it’s targeted.
   • Word of caution – An experienced CEO mentioned that expecting VC’s to make lots of intros is not healthy… those intros in most cases are not a great match for the startups strategy, BUT because of the entrepreneur/investor dynamic, they create a lot of pressure to explore those intros and force something out of them even if it’s pretty artificial and not the company’s top priority.
   • One entrepreneur suggested: Make your network known (or at least make sure it’s clear who your network is not).
3. Suggest tools and evangelize new technology – each startup is different, but when it comes to Internet startups, there’s a lot of common tools and best practices. Steve Blank compiled an excellent list of tools (see startup resources on VC Cafe)- have you?
   • Several entrepreneurs asked: Not just the what but the why.
4. Help with recruiting – Finding and helping interview candidates is invaluable, especially in the early stages.
5. Help with financing – not only in subsequent rounds, but also credit lines, etc. One aspect of this is understanding when to be flexible with the entrepreneur and how to deal with the situation when things get tough.
6. Help and mentor on how to build a sales organization. This is probably the weakest link of most technical founders.
7. Host product and business reviews – This is common practice in large companies – have the product managers and sales teams present their latest developments and pipelines for the year/quarter. Give constructive feedback.
8. Be proactive about training management teams – people are the most important asset, right? If it’s not a cliche, invest in people. Host workshops and help establish a strong management team within your portfolio.
   • Just an idea: Show your value to the entrepreneur before you sell
     i.e: Invite to workshops even when you don’t plan to immediately invest.
9. Transparency – give honest feedback about process :
   • a quick no is better than an endless maybe
   • Let entrepreneurs know about your process and what to expect in terms of timing and effort
   • Don’t pull a last minute change in deal terms, threaten to pull out late, or pressure the entrepreneur when you realise he’s desperate.
   • Share due diligence on a space or an existing space. It doesn’t have to be your current thinking but instead of VCs always busting on entrepreneurs about their lack of top down analysis it would be great to share it.
10. Make things Simple:
    • Simple financing docs and correspondingly low legal fee
    • Low bureaucratic requirements in terms of board meeting docs, other reporting.

One insightful entrepreneur suggested the list should be organized by the stage of the startup:

• Looking for ideas: VCs can openly give indications / trends at talks, conferences.  “Looking for idea” types are a big portion of attendees at conferences.  Inspire them with gaps in the market or opportunities.  They’ll chase them, giving VCs a good pipeline to choose from later on.  Sow the seeds & harvest the dealflow later.

• Prototyping the idea: VCs should give early product feedback, 1-on-1 if possible.  Like an “open office” format would be super cool (a la First Round Capital).  Come in, 20min max, make it clear it’snot a “funding pitch” – only product feedback / sounding board.

• Building the idea: Again, product feedback is always valuable.  But also business development opps, pricing strategy, marketing plan review, etc.  This is probably a bit more time intensive & starts to wade into potential conflict of interest territory… so not sure what can actually be done.  I suppose if the VC is talking to the entrep at this stage, there’s interest in investing & might be worth the time investment.

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Eze Vidra

Co Founder and Managing Partner at Remagine Ventures

Eze is managing partner of Remagine Ventures, a seed fund investing in ambitious founders at the intersection of tech, entertainment, gaming and commerce with a spotlight on Israel.

I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.

I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.

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