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Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

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Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#11

Post by wavephorm »

pg wrote: post #2

Like Ron and Yuri, Andreessen Horowitz are real pros. I think founders will like them.

I emailed a16z to ask for a meeting or phone interview about an "amazing" opportunity to invest "early" in a new startup. They did not respond or ask any questions, I was completely ignored.

All their deals seem like big money and late stage. Do they know a good startup when they see it? Seems like instead of finding startup investment opportunities by themselves they're going to let YC filter out the good deals for them.

They even said in the article it's just about deal flow.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#12

Post by pg »

wavephorm wrote: post #11
pg wrote: post #2

Like Ron and Yuri, Andreessen Horowitz are real pros. I think founders will like them.

I emailed a16z to ask for a meeting or phone interview about an "amazing" opportunity to invest "early" in a new startup. They did not respond or ask any questions, I was completely ignored. All their deals seem like big money and late stage. Do they know a good startup when they see it? Seems like instead of finding startup investment opportunities by themselves they're going to let YC filter out the good deals for…

Don't you do the same thing when you get emails offering you amazing business opportunities?

As a general rule, no VC firm will respond to a cold email. You need an intro from someone they know. Your best bet is to try to get an intro from someone at a company they've invested in.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#13

Post by bfe »

Interesting that both SVA and AH responded to the success of YC not by setting up separate programs to emulate it, but by coalescing around it. This clearly made sense for Milner as a relative newcomer but the other two groups had no shortage of connections and capabilities in place and could easily have taken either route. YC keeps increasing the margin by which it is the top program of its kind.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#14

Post by coffeemug »

wavephorm wrote: post #11
pg wrote: post #2

Like Ron and Yuri, Andreessen Horowitz are real pros. I think founders will like them.

I emailed a16z to ask for a meeting or phone interview about an "amazing" opportunity to invest "early" in a new startup. They did not respond or ask any questions, I was completely ignored. All their deals seem like big money and late stage. Do they know a good startup when they see it? Seems like instead of finding startup investment opportunities by themselves they're going to let YC filter out the good deals for…

SV has a culture of getting to investors through trusted sources. Email a few of their portfolio companies that are relevant (but not competitive) with your business, ask to buy them lunch and chat for a bit, then ask for an intro at the end of the meeting if it goes well.

From the investor's perspective this a) filters out people with no conviction, b) filters out spray and pray-style emails, c) helps them manage hundreds of emails they receive every day.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#15

Post by earbitscom »

Shenglong wrote: post #7
pg wrote: post #2

Like Ron and Yuri, Andreessen Horowitz are real pros. I think founders will like them.

I know investors tend to stick with the companies they fund and help them out, but since $150k split three ways isn't all that much for each investor, how much commitment have you seen on the angels' part? I mean, even if a quarter of the YC companies take the offer, I imagine they'd have a lot of companies to deal with.

I had the same question when they made the investment. The SV Angel team and Felix from Start Fund have not hesitated once to help when asked, and we've had more than our share of proactive, unprompted introductions to key people from them.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#16

Post by bfe »

wavephorm wrote: post #11
pg wrote: post #2

Like Ron and Yuri, Andreessen Horowitz are real pros. I think founders will like them.

I emailed a16z to ask for a meeting or phone interview about an "amazing" opportunity to invest "early" in a new startup. They did not respond or ask any questions, I was completely ignored. All their deals seem like big money and late stage. Do they know a good startup when they see it? Seems like instead of finding startup investment opportunities by themselves they're going to let YC filter out the good deals for…

Since the moment they announced their formation, AH has consistently said they are completely stage-agnostic, and Marc had a previous history of investing personally in very small initial angel deals.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#17

Post by wavephorm »

pg wrote: post #12
wavephorm wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I emailed a16z to ask for a meeting or phone interview about an "amazing" opportunity to invest "early" in a new startup. They did not respond or ask any questions, I was completely ignored. All their deals seem like big money and late stage. Do they know a good startup when they see it? Seems like instead of finding startup investment opportunities by themselves they're going to let YC filter out the good deals for…

Don't you do the same thing when you get emails offering you amazing business opportunities? As a general rule, no VC firm will respond to a cold email. You need an intro from someone they know. Your best bet is to try to get an intro from someone at a company they've invested in.

They have a form right on their site for submitting business plans.

http://a16z.com/about/contact-us/

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#18

Post by betterlabs »

This is awesome for YC / YC startups as well as AH as they get to be in the YC companies at the very early stage. However, I am not able to understand why VC firms would go so broad and fund such a large number of startups with amounts that are insignificant for their fund sizes. Would it not be distracting? Would it not leave them with too broad a portfolio to be able to truly make significant contributions to the company's success? Does it not feel like a spray and pray approach? I totally understand this from a deal flow perspective but I'd love for VC firms to focus on deals they believe in and focus on building massive game changing businesses. And for this, I am sure they have to invest in 10 to find 1 that works, but investing in 200 feels not so right - and lacking conviction.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#19

Post by pg »

wavephorm wrote: post #17
pg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you do the same thing when you get emails offering you amazing business opportunities? As a general rule, no VC firm will respond to a cold email. You need an intro from someone they know. Your best bet is to try to get an intro from someone at a company they've invested in.

They have a form right on their site for submitting business plans. http://a16z.com/about/contact-us/

Even if a VC offered an email address to send business plans to, I'd try to get an intro instead.

(Also, the instructions on the form say it is for "other inquiries." You're supposed to send business plans to one of the email addresses on the right. So if you used the form that may be why you didn't hear back.)

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

#20

Post by DevX101 »

wavephorm wrote: post #17
pg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you do the same thing when you get emails offering you amazing business opportunities? As a general rule, no VC firm will respond to a cold email. You need an intro from someone they know. Your best bet is to try to get an intro from someone at a company they've invested in.

They have a form right on their site for submitting business plans. http://a16z.com/about/contact-us/

That's a filter for plans they don't want to read, not a submission form.
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