Conflicted Capital
blog.aaronkharris.com
Conflicted Capital
1–10 of 76 posts
Re: Conflicted Capital
#2My issue with the whole fundraising circuit (esp for low cap-ex startups) is how much you have to strain yourself to convince a non-customer to believe in you
Re: Conflicted Capital
#3My issue with the whole fundraising circuit (esp for low cap-ex startups) is how much you have to strain yourself to convince a non-customer to believe in you
Only slightly related to your point, but I find almost the entire VC community not one that I would want to be working with very closely with. It’s just not the kind of people I find interesting. Not that they’re not skilled or provide value, but the whole fundraising dance seems to be tiring and honestly pointless. Harkens back to an equally pointless endeavor I’ve been through before: the struggle to get good grades in college. Artificial struggles created by humans for other humans. I guess some people like that but it has an element of “rat race” that I find deeply disturbing.
If I had a wish to materialize an ideal VC firm, it would be a place with both business types and highly skilled engineers who are on top of their skills and continue to build things.
Re: Conflicted Capital
#4My issue with the whole fundraising circuit (esp for low cap-ex startups) is how much you have to strain yourself to convince a non-customer to believe in you
Only slightly related to your point, but I find almost the entire VC community not one that I would want to be working with very closely with. It’s just not the kind of people I find interesting. Not that they’re not skilled or provide value, but the whole fundraising dance seems to be tiring and honestly pointless. Harkens back to an equally pointless endeavor I’ve been through before: the struggle to get good grade…
This is kind of what I'm working on.
Basically a product studio with LPs
Re: Conflicted Capital
#5Raised money from VCs for my last startup. Series A investor made all sorts of overtures about how founder friendly they were and how supportive they would be.
The week after we closed our series A they told me I had to hire a COO. I asked, "You trying to get me to hire my replacement?" "No, we'd never do that. How could you even think that?"
Less than two months after we hired the COO they fired me. The COO was made the CEO and he ran the company into the ground.
The lesson for founders is to never, ever, ever give up control of your board/company. Always maintain control of a majority of the board seats.
Re: Conflicted Capital
#6Raised money from VCs for my last startup. Series A investor made all sorts of overtures about how founder friendly they were and how supportive they would be. The week after we closed our series A they told me I had to hire a COO. I asked, "You trying to get me to hire my replacement?" "No, we'd never do that. How could you even think that?" Less than two months after we hired the COO they fired me. The COO was made…
Did you make some money though?
Re: Conflicted Capital
#7Raised money from VCs for my last startup. Series A investor made all sorts of overtures about how founder friendly they were and how supportive they would be. The week after we closed our series A they told me I had to hire a COO. I asked, "You trying to get me to hire my replacement?" "No, we'd never do that. How could you even think that?" Less than two months after we hired the COO they fired me. The COO was made…
Did you make some money though?
None.
Re: Conflicted Capital
#8Raised money from VCs for my last startup. Series A investor made all sorts of overtures about how founder friendly they were and how supportive they would be. The week after we closed our series A they told me I had to hire a COO. I asked, "You trying to get me to hire my replacement?" "No, we'd never do that. How could you even think that?" Less than two months after we hired the COO they fired me. The COO was made…
This is not cool - I am sorry. Investor here - they should never do that. Make sure you tell others about how this went down. If they were planning on getting rid of you, that needs to be part of the upfront discussion etc.
Re: Conflicted Capital
#9[deleted]
Re: Conflicted Capital
#10> In fact, the vast majority of the investors I’ve met, even those that have fired founders, are good people. It’s deeper than that, even. Investors mostly want to do the right thing for founders. There are emotional and business reasons for this impulse, but ultimately the fiduciary responsibility has to win. Founders need to understand that venture investing is a business where friendship is an input or an outcome, and not the other way around.
Cynical viewpoint coming in:
VC investors are only "good people" because that is what currently drives the market for dealflow. What I think a lot of entrepreneurs miss is that VCs are finance professionals first and foremost. If the market dynamic starts to change, you might see them behaving differently but still aligned ultimately to the interest of their LPs.
TL;DR - VCs who create good content, are helpful, are nice to founders, etc. ("founder friendly") in a professional context are only that way because it's generally what has been proven to generate good leads for deal flow.