I Contacted 453 VCs and Lost Our Side Bet
Exploring Alternative Sources of Funding
A stem-cell researcher I work with could help cure sickle cell disease with a simple product. When I first heard this, I was skeptical. How could one product, a lab equipment product, have much effect on a disease? Now, a year later, it’s clear that the science is there, but the engineering isn’t. Eventually, sickle cell disease will be remediated. How fast this happens, and how fast similar innovations become possible, depends partly on the VC vetting process — a process we made a wager on. This is a story about the experiment we ran, the bet I lost, and how private money works. It covers:
- Little-known details on how private money works from my experiences as a fund partner
- The experiment behind the bet
- Exactly who should seek VC/seed funding and who shouldn’t
The Backstory on the Bet
It is not uncommon that failure to adhere to an exhausting list of startup rules is cited as the reason entrepreneurs don’t get funded. I think this is misleading. That is an excellent list by the way. Following it certainly won’t hurt anything, but not following such a list almost certainly has no effect on your VC funding prospects.
