How to Get Venture Capitalists to Make Quick Investment Decisions
If you don’t want to be strung along while fundraising, then you need to learn how to get clear, quick answers from investors.
When you’re a fundraising entrepreneur, of course your main goal is to get the venture capitalists you’re pitching to say “yes.” You obviously want them to invest, otherwise, why are you talking with them? However, as important as a “yes” is, there’s a second response that’s almost as important. It’s not a “maybe” or a “we’ll see” or “this is interesting… I’d love for you to keep me updated.” All those responses are time wasters. Instead, if a VC isn’t going to tell you “yes,” then your goal, as an entrepreneur, should be to get a “quick no.” Simply put, when VCs give a quick, clear “no,” it lets entrepreneurs move onto other, more beneficial work.
Unfortunately, as I’ve written elsewhere, it’s not in a venture capitalist’s best interests to tell founders “no.” Instead, VCs benefit more from dragging their feet, buying as much time as possible, and seeing what a company does as well as how other investors look at a deal. Their goal is to be the last investor in a round, not the first. As a result, good venture capitalists are experts at keeping founders in investment limbo and waiting as long as…
