I Hate This Shit
The apparent “we have money, bow before us” dichotomy continues.
So, apparently there’s an event in New England where Venture Capitalists go and ski and entrepreneurs can pitch to them if their lucky enough to be on the same ski lift.
The VCs wear one type of ski bib, and entrepreneurs wear another.
Happy times for the VCs, annoying times for the startup guys who must go but have no guaranteed face time - just the chance that they might.
Sure it means you’ve got to have your elevator pitch down pat, and there are some organised events with “best pitch on the slopes” type fun things.
Well, fun if your the VC.
Sweating buckets if you’re the entrepreneur taking time away from building a product on the off-chance that you’ll get face time on a chair-lift with the VC on a jolly.
Why don’t those VCs take some constructive time like Rick Segal and Brad Feld and offer up valuable time for some no-harm, no-foul calls instead?
Without entrepreneurs, VC wouldn’t have jobs. Show them a tad more respect.
Oh, and I don’t Ski. Got time for me in the lodge bar?
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Mr. E'preneur can always carry a gun and make an unrefusable offer ;-)
Steve, The Peak Pitch event is actually a great deal for start-up entrepreneurs. Where else can you pitch 5 to 8 different VCs in the morning, have lunch with them and fellow entrepreneurs, and then have the afternoon to follow up with the VCs that show interest? In most cases it would take months to accomplish the same thing.
I understand your point about VCs being arrogant...some of the are, but most of them are just realistic and pragmatic. A typical VC makes one or two investments a year, and looks at about 100 companies. They know they will have to say "no" 99% of the time because the company doesn't fit their investment criteria.
I know Brad Feld and Rick Segal personally. They are great guys. But the fact is they say "no" 99% of the time too, perhaps more since they take NHNF meetings that other VCs don't.
Don Dodge