By Remmy Oxley VCs rise and fall. Venture firms startup and rise. The front lines of venture capital show tectonic plate shifts in power, influence and reach. At Y Combinator’s recent demo day VCs made some errors that will cost their brands dearly. -1- Don’t send hot female associates An east coast venture firm sent two female associates. This might work in NYC or Boston. It did not go over well at 320 Pioneer Way. At Y Combinator’s HQ, the entrepreneurs weren’t gravitating towards “Marc Andreessen, Roelof Botha, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Ron Conway and others there, too. And people didn’t flock to them like they usually do. It was all about the new companies.” Mike Arrington said this in his post Unbridled Entrepreneurism> . Playing the sex card and sending attractive associates of either gender… of any sexual orientation… without Board of Director experience was a mistake. -2- Don’t send associates without in-person partner support Some firms sent the entire office. Some firms made the mistake of just sending associates. The firms that had dedicated days, sent EVERYONE. what’s a dedicated day…?! -3- Make sure you get a dedicated day for your firm A dedicated day is a day where you get to interact with the portfolio companies. If you do not get this dedicated day, then get on the waitlist to create one for yourself. -4- Get angel day cancelled Want less investor competition?! Cancel angel day. This year there was no Angel Day. -5- Don’t “big league” the weaker companies Remember YC companies look to other YC companies to form opinions. They are documented at learning a lot from these co-hort mentors. The founders are like pro athletes where most opinions have extremely equal weights. You would think that the status of a sports agent that a two year pro O-pines matters less than the 12 year all-star but it isn’t. Equal opinion weight. So do not big league the weaker portfolio companies and be nice to everyone… Be douchie to a week company and that negative opinion of you propogates thru the portfolio. Also, YC companies first recruit at other yc companies -6- Don’t forget the better companies don’t pitch If you heard a company was hot but they did not pitch… It is because the better companies don’t pitch. They get pulled from the demo day. -7- Don’t under-estimate your dis-advantage because another venture firm got a way longer look at a startup If you’re a VC coming to the Y Combinator party late in the game… know you’re at a disadvantage Upcoming Demo Days include: 500 Startups. Portfolio . Aug 31, 2011. 500Strong in NYC. Stanford StartX. September 8, 2011»
August 30, 2011, 5:23pm Comments
