Comments on: What do investors look for in a startup?

By: What Do Investors Want in a Startup?

What Do Investors Want in a Startup? — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:40:47 +0000

[...] of what he says here is pretty standard. And if you’re interested, his fellow blogger transcribed this interview on venture hacks. Some highlights: “I look for two things that are paramount above [...]

By: BA410.com » Blog Archive » What Do Investors Want in a Startup?

BA410.com » Blog Archive » What Do Investors Want in a Startup? — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:22:32 +0000

By: Mark MacLeod

Mark MacLeod — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:59:56 +0000

This is definitely the wish list. The technology one is not a factor in many of today’s web startups where design and user experience seem to be replacing core tech as the basis for an advantage.

By: Up and Running

Up and Running — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:15:18 +0000

What Do Investors Want in a Startup?…

What do investors want? A common topic for blogs, entrepreneurs, and investors. So here’s another view on it, from somebody who knows:

Naval Ravikant, the speaker, has been through the ringer a few times, on both sides of the investment table. I…

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:47:13 +0000

Great Article and great site, Naval I just cliked your name and read up on you – what you have done is truely awesome. My team is looking for some additional advisors as we approach funding – how do I approach you on that type of thing?

Thanks,

Ryan

By: chrisco

chrisco — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:36:49 +0000

Good quote from “The ‘Outside the Box’ Box” blog from last year: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/outside-the-box.html

“Many in Silicon Valley have observed that the vast majority of venture capitalists at any given time are all chasing the same Revolutionary Innovation, and it’s the Revolutionary Innovation that IPO’d six months ago. This is an especially crushing observation in venture capital, because there’s a direct economic motive to not follow the herd – either someone else is also developing the product, or someone else is bidding too much for the startup. Steve Jurvetson once told me that at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, only two partners need to agree in order to fund any startup up to $1.5 million. And if all the partners agree that something sounds like a good idea, they won’t do it. If only grant committees were this sane.”

By: BA410: Start Your Business

BA410: Start Your Business — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:48:18 +0000

What Do Investors Want in a Startup?…

What do investors want? A common topic for blogs, entrepreneurs, and investors. So here’s another view on it, from somebody who knows:

Naval Ravikant, the speaker, has been through the ringer a few times, on both sides of the investment table. …

By: Naval

Naval — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:23:13 +0000

These are my criteria – other investors will have different ones. They’re all fuzzy, by definition, which is what makes this one of the last apprenticeship / experience-based businesses. The one commonality that everyone will agree on is “great team” but the definition of that is different for different investors.

Usually, if a VC misses a great one, they’ve rationalized themselves into saying that they didn’t want to do it anyway – that’s human nature. There are some notable exceptions, like Bessemer’s anti-portfolio.

By: Kartik Agaram

Kartik Agaram — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:47:00 +0000

Naval,

How complete are these criteria? How good are VCs at measuring them?

Restated: When a VC sees a hit that he wasn’t in on, what is he more likely to think?

a) Drat, how did I miss the potential?

b) Drat, I knew I should have networked harder to get in on that deal.

By: chrisco

chrisco — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:58:27 +0000

You’ve just descried the venture capitalist’s wet dream.

Everybody knows that startup when they see it, the herd knows it, the herd is chasing it, little skill is required to play this game, which is all about momentum (nothing wrong with it, but takes little skill).

The skill (and value) is being able to pick a diamond out of the ruff.

Cheers,
Chris

PS: VentureHacks is great, guys, keep up the good work!