Here are a few of the brave investors who have joined the Venture Hacks community. I’ve also included descriptions of the types of companies they’re looking for:
We’ll highlight other investors (and startups) in an upcoming post. Browse the community while we’re in private beta or request an invite to help us test the site.
“Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists can use the sub-site, simply called Recommended, to track who and what others think highly of, and to indicate their own affinities as well.
“It’s structured much like Twitter—users set up profiles and subscribe to each other, then review recommendations made by others and make recommendations of their own.
“The overall idea behind Recommended is to lubricate the process by which members of the startup community network and determine who and what is popular.”
“While the service is very much a work in progress, the simplicity of the connections—and the fact that you’re connecting with influential people—makes this a promising service.”
“It is really straightforward, simple and stupid. It’s like RSS for deal flow,” Nivi told us this morning… “All startup deal flow is done by email and phone now—a push model. This is like a pull model,” Nivi explained.
“Founders no longer need to spend weeks or days lining up reference calls for potential investors: just hand over the URL of your Venture Hacks profile…”
“I asked Nivi about the service and in typical elevator pitch fashion, he replied “it’s match.com for investors and entrepreneurs”.
“While I am not sure if we need one more social network to join or profile to create… the financing matchmaking process remains full of friction and inefficiency…”
Summary: The most common question we hear from entrepreneurs is, “Can you introduce me to investors?” Yes we can. We’re going to recommend startups on Venture Hacks. Investors are invited to subscribe to our recommendations. And everyone is welcome to recommend startups here. Request an invite if you want to help test the Recommended feature before we open it up—it’s also open for browsing in the meantime.
On April 1st, we started publishing the best damn term sheet hacks we could find. Why? Because a lot of entrepreneurs ask the same question:
“Can you help me understand term sheets?”
We’re trying to make everything we’ve learned—from other entrepreneurs, investors, and lawyers—readily available. We have a lot more work to do, but entrepreneurs seem to like the hacks so far.
Now the most common question we hear from entrepreneurs is,
“Can you introduce me to investors?”
Yes we can.
We like recommending startups to investors. And if you’re reading this, you might too. We want to help more entrepreneurs get introductions—so we’re going to recommend startups on Venture Hacks.
Here’s how the Recommended feature works for entrepreneurs, investors, and middlemen:
If you’re an entrepreneur, we’ll recommend you to investors. The best way to convince us—or anyone—to make a recommendation is by presenting a good pitch and a good team. For example:
If you’re an investor, you can subscribe to our recommendations:
Or subscribe to anyone’s recommendations:
And if you’re a middleman—like us—who digs introducing entrepreneurs to investors, we can’t wait to see what you recommend:
Microphone check.
We’re building and testing Recommended now. Request an invite if you want to help us test it before we open it up. Or just browse it in the meantime. Here are a few interesting places to get started:
Josh Kopelman from First Round Capital is “looking for companies that find new uses for existing data sets.”
Mitch Lasky from Benchmark Capital says, “I still believe in mobile.”
Marc Hustvedt, an angel investor, is “looking seriously at IPTV.”
Aydin Senkut, an angel investor at Felicis Ventures, has a “focus on early stage consumer internet companies.”
James Cham, from Bessemer Venture Partners, is “looking for companies that see the commercial opportunities in inference engines.”
Reactions to Recommended
Nivi · March 26th, 2008
Every article about Recommended described the feature better than our launch post. Here’s a few snippets we particularly liked.
Browse Recommended or request an invite while we’re in private beta: Recommended.