Greedy Corporate Ventures

Long story short, I had four bad episodes with corporate ventures firms over the past month. And we’re still in trouble with some of them. This is a lot.

1. The first one didn’t respect its engagement and screwed the management over, putting the company in a critical position.
2. The second one totally changed the terms, screwing the management over, only days before closing.
3. The third one invested 220k for a 37% stake and doesn’t understand why the equity story needs to be somehow adjusted.
4. The fourth one tried to get a call option right when venture capitalists were willing to jump in.

I can’t publish my black list because I don’t need their misplaced anger to keep me busy, but I do have one that I openly share with founders when we discuss their options.

Corporate Ventures have no rights to play the almighty or to put pressure on a founding team because they are used of being in a position of power or not giving a damn about those tiny cute startups and their founders (that will hopefully one day teach them a hard lesson…).

Dear corporate teams, if you wanna be in the venture game, you must play by the rules. Learn your lessons and act like professionals, please.