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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

#21

Post by pg »

betterlabs wrote: post #18

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 c…

Almost all VC funds do seed-sized investments now. Both sides understand it's not the same as a series A, and both are ok with that.

Incidentally, Ron Conway is proof the model works. He has been operating this way for decades and founders are as a rule pretty happy with the amount of help he gives them.

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

#22

Post by bfe »

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/

From what I've heard about a different VC firm, even though they have a business plan submission form, they literally never contact people who submit through it, and rely exclusively on personal introductions.

They also made the point that they know lots of people and anyone should be able to network their way into a personal introduction, a trivially easy task compared with many other tasks needed for forming a startup, so they actively use that as a filter.

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

#23

Post by wavephorm »

DevX101 wrote: post #20
wavephorm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's my point. If a VC can't even be bothered to look through or respond to opportunites that show up on their doorstep, how exactly can they be in a position to find or help startups? There wasn't even anything in the article about helping or working with startups. It's ONLY about getting the foot in the door and just letting YC do the filtering.

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

#24

Post by betterlabs »

pg wrote: post #21
betterlabs wrote: post #18

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 c…

Almost all VC funds do seed-sized investments now. Both sides understand it's not the same as a series A, and both are ok with that. Incidentally, Ron Conway is proof the model works. He has been operating this way for decades and founders are as a rule pretty happy with the amount of help he gives them.

I am not sure if VC firms doing seed investing have done it in such large numbers and if not (which I think is the case), are they setup to manage 100 startups a year versus 15.

Also I am wondering if this approach will have to be the new approach or the one that Khosla, Benchmark, Sequoia (I understand they are indirectly in YC companies) and similar ones have had for long, of identifying big trends, finding the right company and going big behind it, is still better. I have seen the latter fail as well as succeed. I think we have very little data on the former but there is bound to be a limited set of companies that a VC partnership can optimally support / manage and this new approach may put a strain on it. I guess we have to wait and see. Thanks much for replying, pg.

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

#25

Post by Shenglong »

wavephorm wrote: post #23
DevX101 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's my point. If a VC can't even be bothered to look through or respond to opportunites that show up on their doorstep, how exactly can they be in a position to find or help startups? There wasn't even anything in the article about helping or working with startups. It's ONLY about getting the foot in the door and just letting YC do the filtering.

I think you're missing the point entirely. Yes, there's a chance that one of the people who cold emails them is good - but really, what are the odds?

With introductions, the referrer stakes his or her reputation on the referee. Make too many bad recommendations, and that cuts out a bad lead. The most successful organizations I know recruit through internal contacts - and it just makes sense from a VC's perspective to do the same.

It's about the best allocation of time vs good finds, rather than just finding every good opportunity.

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

#26

Post by jasontan »

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…

if you can't get an introduction, continue working on your product and gain traction, if you have a million users you definitely won't be ignored.

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

#27

Post by siong1987 »

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/

See, the form is used to submit your business plan. If your email is something along the following line like:

"Hi, I have an 'amazing' opportunity for you to invest 'early' in a new startup. I am willing to meet at time XXX or you can call me at XXX."

It is very likely that you will get ignored. In fact, I did send an email with a rough business plan about my previous startup to the above email before. And, someone from a16z replied me telling me that they were not interested in the market that I was in then.

Why don't you try to send an email with a real/concrete proposal about your startup/idea? It is more likely that you will get a reply from them in this way.

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

#30

Post by joshu »

bfe wrote: post #13

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.

A16z doesn't have the bandwidth to start one of these, I think.
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