How I got escorted by security from Andreessen Horowitz, one of the biggest and best venture capital firms in the world

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Oscar and together with my Co-Founder Patrick we run a startup called AssetSquared. We recently went on a trip to Silicon Valley to network with investors and other awesome folk. Here are some of the lessons I learned while we were there.

Andreessen Horowitz is one of the best Venture Capital firms in the world. Marc Andreessen invented the first web browser, and was founder of Netscape (which for those that don’t remember is the OG* version of the internet), and Ben Horowitz was CEO of Opsware and Loudcloud (which was the OG* version of cloud computing).

Of all the investors in Silicon Valley, these guys were the ones that we wanted to invest in our company. We understood that there was an incredibly small chance that this was possible, but nevertheless we decided to give it a shot anyway.

And so it was, that Patrick had somehow acquired the email of one of the partners who worked there. We emailed her as soon as we got to San Francisco.

Day 1: No Reply.

Day 2: No Reply.

Day 4: No Reply.

It was at that moment I hatched a brilliant plan. I would simply just go to their office, like I had for my first job and politely ask if we could organise a time for an appointment.

So on the morning of Day 5, I took a bus, a Caltrain (that’s a train in California) and walked 45 minutes to the offices of Andreessen Horowitz.

The offices are amongst the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. And, sure enough, as I walk in there are a group of gentlemen wearing suits. As it turns out, these gentlemen are security guards and their job is to stop people like me walking to their office. And so, headphones on (blasting Dr Dre), I walk into their office.

As I walk in, there are a group of people having a meeting at a desk who stop and all at once look in my direction. Awkwardly I say “hi” in my naive Australian accent. They immediately asked if I have an appointment, to which I say “no, I just came to check the place out.”.

Unbeknownst to me, that was the second worst thing I could have said.

I followed it up with “oh, but I do run a startup based in Sydney, Australia, and I was wondering what the process would be to get an appointment with you guys”.

That my good friends, is the worst thing I could have said.

A tall gentleman in a suit comes over to me and asks me for a business card. I oblige, and he asks me to step outside as they are having a meeting. He looks at the card and says “Well, Oscar. I’m head of Security here. If you don’t have an appointment, we can’t welcome you here. Come back when you have an appointment”.

And so it came to pass, that I was kindly escorted out of Andreessen Horowitz by their head of security.

The story doesn’t end here. We did end up getting a reply from them, and on the second last day before we left we managed to have a phone conversation with a partner at the firm. She liked us, said our idea was interesting, and was (hopefully) going to put us in touch with others at the firm who may be able to answer our questions. It’s not the finish, but it’s a start.

These are the lessons I learned.

Lesson 1: Do not do this.

This is the worst thing you can possibly do to introduce yourself to anybody, let alone a Venture Capital firm. It’s almost like finding a celebrity you like, who you’ve run into in passing, going to their house, knocking on their door and asking to come in. It doesn’t work. I can’t stress this enough.

Lesson 2: Funding isn’t everything

This was only really evident in hindsight. The goal is never to secure funding. The goal is always to work on your business, and make it so good you can’t be ignored. It will even give you the luxury of choosing who funds you. The flower doesn’t wait for the bees, the flower blooms and the bees come.

Lesson 3: No matter where you are in the world, you’re in the world

This lesson sounds ridiculous, but ultimately Silicon Valley is just a place with people in it. Sure, these people have money. And yes, almost all the big tech startups are there, but that doesn’t mean anything.

What does mean something is that no matter where you are, through the internet you still have the capability to build an amazing product and to give it to the world. It might start small, but thats the beauty of growing a business.

Don’t be scared homies.

Cheers,

Oscar

*OG = Original Gangster. The term was commonly used in Hip-Hop to denote that you were amongst the first rappers to make it big.